A whirlwind of lights between Fasano and Giovinazzo

The illuminations spark the imagination, evoke a sense of enchantment and bring to life a luminous, arabesque-style fairy tale, dotted with colourful LEDs, whilst their designs draw on Arabesque motifs and the patterns found in fabrics and wedding dresses. Originally created as festive structures in villages throughout Puglia – where they are erected and tied together with poles and iron wires, never permanently fixed, to honour patron saints and virgins – they have since also become design objects and, above all, artistic installations. The most elegant and intriguing example is *We Rise by Lifting Others*, the crown-like structure that Marinella Salvatore – drawing inspiration from a famous quote by the orator and lawyer Robert Ingersoll – has placed in the olive grove of Masseria Torre Maizza: it can still be admired throughout September from outside the Fasanese farmhouse, or by choosing to have a plate of laganari and gazpacho with tomatoes and watermelon for lunch at the creative Violetta restaurant by the pool, sampling the cocktail menu created by the eclectic barman Tiziano Lattanzi beneath the flower-filled pergolas of the Bouganvillea, or treating yourself to an all-seafood menu in the refined orangery of the Carosello. The installation was physically crafted by the long-established firm De Cagna in its workshop-forge on the outskirts of Maglie in Salento. It is simply impossible to resist the charm of the traditional Apulian display of lights, which also inspired the brilliant and delicate pastry chef Nicola Giotti. In his medieval town of Giovinazzo—a village of Roman origins where the Angevins, Aragonese and Bourbons fought for dominance in the shadow of the Co-Cathedral overlooking the sea, created the ‘luminaria’ dessert, which joins the ‘fruttini’ and the ‘panettone-rosone’.