Thanks to a climate with very favourable weather for this kind of crop, Salento, together with the whole Ionian arc of Apulia and Basilicata, was singled out as an area of strategic interest in which to develop tobacco growing. As early as 1812, under the Kingdom of Naples, the first “Salento Leccese Tobacco Factory” was established in Lecce. The History of Tobacco and of the tabacchine – the women who worked in tobacco – in Salento is undoubtedly a milestone in tracing the fortunes of a people with a clearly defined identity. To this day the tabacchine are remembered as a symbol of women devoted to work and family, and of the women's proletarian revolt of the 1900s. Between the First and Second World Wars, my ancestors PAGLIARA GIACOMO FRANCESCO (*02/07/1887 +18/01/1958) and BORLIZZI MARIA CRISTINA (*04/10/1890 +31/12/1974), having learnt how to grow tobacco working for others and as sharecroppers (first in the province of Matera - at Bernalda and Marconia - and then in the province of Taranto - at Sava and Lizzano), decided to start growing tobacco on their own account on the land they owned in the countryside of Diso.
Dry-stone walls are a distinctive architectural feature of the rural landscape of Apulia and Salento. UNESCO has declared them Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The art of building dry-stone walls to enclose the countryside of Apulia and Salento has very ancient origins, and it arose for two fundamental reasons: clearing the land of the stones that surfaced in it, and the need to mark out its boundaries. Over the centuries, farming wisdom has learnt to make the most of these structures which, with their minimal impact on the ecosystem, stand as one of the earliest examples of perfect synergy between man and nature. As UNESCO also points out, these particular structures play a vital role in preventing landslides, floods and avalanches, in combating soil erosion and desertification, enhancing biodiversity and creating the best microclimatic conditions for agriculture. Our farmers had understood the importance of these structures and their ability to absorb the night-time moisture and then release it, drop by drop, at their base during the hottest hours of the day. That is why, in the past and still today, many different kinds of plants are set along them: above all fruit trees (especially figs), vegetables, vines... Planted at the foot of the dry-stone walls, they benefit from the constant moisture of the soil beneath all year round. Using the old building techniques and keeping the use of cement to a minimum, at Masseria Ferarelli Trepizzi we have restored and consolidated more than 1000 metres of dry-stone walls, which today form the main boundary of the property as well as the terraces between the different levels of the Mediterranean Garden.
When we decided to recreate the pergola of pizzutella grapes along the well avenue, we never imagined it would turn out like this. Reading here and there about the old techniques for planting pergolas, we had come across a text that wisely set out the best way to make a pergola self-sufficient and productive at the same time, without any particular care or attention. The technique is very simple: let the roots of the vines grow around a constant source of water, or at least of the coolness that comes from the night dew absorbed by the soil. Indeed, if you look closely, our ancestors had already understood this and put it into practice: even today it is not unusual to find pergolas planted next to a cistern, or near the base of a building or a dry-stone wall. Our well avenue and the planting of our pergolas date back to 2015-2016, and right from the foundations the avenue was designed so that the roots of the vines could settle beneath its paving. It was built with as little cement as possible, favouring porous local stones that let water and moisture drain through (above all tufa for the structure and the columns, and carparo for the paving). Photo Gallery: Building the Pergola with the Cistern
The landscape around Masseria Ferarelli – Trepizzi is shaped by small dolines (which is probably where the local place name Vicinale Doleo comes from), with fertile, arable soil at their centre and outcrops of rock, mostly calcarenite, along their sides. The largest doline - or basin - in the area is called Conca d’Oro, the “Golden Basin”. The name probably hints at how fertile the area is. Since there were no large stretches of arable land, the great landed estates never took hold here, leaving room instead for small plots of Salento’s red earth divided by the typical dry-stone walls, built with the stones cleared from the fields and stacked along the boundaries of each plot. At the foot of the dry-stone walls, fruit trees such as figs, pears, quinces, prickly pears and vines were wisely planted, along with vegetables like artichokes and asparagus, to take advantage of the microclimate created by the absorption and release of moisture from the night dew (helped by the dry-stone walls during the hot Salento summers), which, drop by drop, was captured from the air and released into the soil below. This captured and released moisture was entirely to the benefit of the plants set right along the dry-stone walls. We focused on these distinctive features of the land and landscape to enhance everything that was already there and to create the rest of the Mediterranean Garden of Masseria Ferarelli – Trepizzi. The idea came from a twofold wish: to preserve and enhance what already existed, and to make every single area of the property usable. We planted a variety of trees, shrubs and plants typical of the Mediterranean scrub, and created a rose garden, an aromatic herb trail and an orchard of citrus and local fruit trees. We also catalogued the old fruit trees and the existing olive trees, and expanded and enriched an old Varietal Collection of Salento Figs. The project was developed by our friend Bruno Vaglio, a well-known landscape agronomist specialising in the Mediterranean, who defined the spaces and the materials to be used and advised us on the plants and shrubs best suited to our project of enhancing the land. The whole property is enclosed by typical dry-stone walls about 1.50 m high, topped by a row of local tufa blocks. The use of cement has been kept to a minimum. To define the spaces and the paths, and to mark out and enhance the old quarry, we used the stones found on the land: the old, less regular tufa blocks quarried on site were combined with new squared tufa blocks, creating a contrast that brings out every single piece of stone salvaged and given new life, making it an integral, defining part of the rural landscape you find yourself immersed in. Our Mediterranean Garden spreads over three levels, connected by small stone stairways and sloping embankments. On the highest part – at about 101 m above sea level – in a privileged position slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, stand the buildings of the masseria, with the old threshing floor, the courtyard and the well at the centre, as well as what remains of our centuries-old olive grove after the scourge of Xylella, the small orchard, the typical stone pajara and the avenue of the Pergola with the Cistern. The lowest part – at about 98 m above sea level – is sheltered from the winds, especially the tramontana and the other northerly winds; here you will find our Citrus Grove - Arab Garden and our vegetable garden, where the Pagliara – Lisci family grows pulses and vegetables. The drop between these two areas of the property is truly striking: it is formed by the imposing rock face of the centuries-old quarry, which still bears the marks of the tufa blocks cut by hand with pickaxes. This rock face continues as far as the swimming pool area, itself carved out of part of the old quarry, set slightly apart from the main building and surrounded by rocky ground with outcrops and highly fragrant wild vegetation such as wild thyme, mosses and lichens. In the most sheltered part of the old quarry, as mentioned, we created our Citrus Grove - Arab Garden, to make the most of the microclimate created by the shelter from the cold northerly winds. The design of the citrus grove recalls the ancient layout of the Persian Arab Garden, divided into 4 parts by walkways, with a small greenhouse at its centre. The middle part – at about 99 m above sea level – is home to the Mediterranean Scrub Grove (planted in 2018), on a piece of land that had lain uncultivated and abandoned for many years. During the reforestation about 250 trees of various sizes and species were planted (Italian Stone Pines, Maritime Pines, Common Cypresses, Tuscan Cypresses, Carob Trees, Strawberry Trees, Kermes Oaks, Holm Oaks, Valonia Oaks, Medda, Azaroles, Service Trees, Pomegranates, Prickly Pears, Jujubes, Figs and Almond Trees) along with more than 300 shrubs and aromatic plants (Mastic, Creeping Rosemary, Rosemary, Wild Jerusalem Sage, Viburnum, Thyme, Lavender, Myrtle, Wall Germander, Dog Rose, Rosa Mutabilis, …). On the north side (that is, to the right of the main entrance from Via Vecchia Castiglione) is the car park serving the whole property. This space has been cleverly marked off by large calcarenite boulders (some weighing over 300 kg), placed as bollards to separate the manoeuvring area from the small adjacent grove of carob and strawberry trees. Taking instead the footpath to the left of the main entrance, we head south towards the monumental fig tree (Culummeddrhu Niuru), which stands right at the centre of this area and has become the heart of our garden and its activities. Where the paths meet, this magnificent fig stands exactly halfway between the new threshing floor and the great flight of steps overlooking the vegetable garden. Its splendid green canopy welcomes us for pleasant moments of relaxation and contemplation on sunny summer afternoons. With our backs to the fig tree, still looking south, we can stroll through the wonderful Mediterranean Grove, whose biodiversity lets us watch the seasons go by through the colours and scents of our land.
Our claim “Rural Experience” says it all! During your stay at the masseria you can book one of our authentic experiences, which let you get to know the place and the destination through activities rooted in local customs. The experiences we have chosen to focus on, to help you discover the area better, are those linked to the countryside, its seasons and the food that can be made with the produce of the land and local specialities. In the large outdoor patio of our masseria there is a traditional wood-fired oven in Pietra Leccese, perfect for pizzas and focacce as well as for baking the typical durum wheat semolina bread and traditional friselle. We also have a large barbecue, ideal for excellent grilled meat and fish. In this area we can organise - on request and at an extra charge - themed evenings such as bread-making courses, pizza or focaccia parties, small events and team building around food and wine, with dedicated specialist staff. These cooking experiences can be followed by tastings of wines and typical dishes of the Apulian and Salento culinary tradition, prepared with strictly zero-kilometre local ingredients. The experiences we can organise are: Pizza & Focaccia Experience Making Pasta Experience Cicureddrhe Experience Primosale & Ricotta Experience Barbecue Experience
The Rooms: Masseria Ferarelli – Trepizzi currently has three rooms for its “temporary residents”. All of our rooms have a private bathroom with shower, TV, safe, kettle, tea and herbal tea station, wine cooler, an outdoor patio furnished with stone benches, table and chairs, and free Wi-Fi. The rooms can be taken by separate, independent families, giving each one adequate space and privacy, or (as they can be connected to one another) they can host a single large family or a group of families / friends who choose to share the whole property with all its indoor and outdoor spaces. For your masseria room booking you can choose from: Culummu Room This room of about 25 m² with private bathroom takes its dialect name from one of the fig varieties growing at the masseria. The Culummu room has a furnished private patio of about 25 m² and, with an extra bed, can sleep up to 3 adults. Rizzeddhra Room This room of about 25 m² with private bathroom takes its dialect name from one of the fig varieties growing at the masseria. The Rizzeddhra room has a furnished private patio of about 25 m² and, with an extra bed, can sleep up to 3 adults. Uttata Room The smallest of the three, this room of about 20 m² with private bathroom also takes its dialect name from one of the fig varieties growing at the masseria. The room has a small furnished terrace of about 15 m² overlooking the most secluded part of the property and can sleep 2 adults. Amenities in our Rooms Traditional Salento bed with “cisteddri” trestles and wooden boards King-size (Culummu and Rizzeddhra) and queen-size (Uttata) memory foam mattress Pure cotton sheets Handcrafted Salento textiles Pure cotton bath sheets and towels Shower / Hairdryer / Courtesy toiletries Indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi Satellite Smart TV / Safe Salento sideboard / Drinks and snacks corner
Masseria in Salento: the historic part (of which we have managed to preserve only a few sections) dates back to the early 1900s. It was laid out around a threshing floor with a well at its centre; the building was a country farmstead made up of a communal area with a large fireplace, which served as both dining room and sleeping quarters, and a larger building used at first as a tool store and stable and later as a warehouse for storing tobacco. This last building collapsed through disuse and was then rebuilt by salvaging and reusing the original materials (such as the fireplace, the stone benches, the old hand-cut Pietra Leccese blocks and the traditional “petti de palummu”, the corbels jutting out from the walls which in the past were used to support the beams and poles of canopies or to mark rights of use, known in dialect as “iussi”, from the Latin ius = right). The rest of the present building is more recent and was built using the most modern construction techniques, but with great care to showcase the materials and distinctive architectural features of the rural buildings in the area. Typical local materials and stones were used, above all Cutrofiano tufa, Carparo from Acquarica del Capo and the ever-present stone of Cursi and Corigliano, commonly known as Pietra Leccese or, in dialect, “liccisu”. The Threshing Floor: in the past this space played a very important part in social and economic life. Specifically, it was a place of work, used both for drying the produce of the land in the sun (above all figs and tomatoes) and for threshing and cleaning pulses and cereals, which, after being beaten to separate them from their dry pods, were “ientulati”. (On windy days they were slowly poured from a bucket held up high, so that after threshing the wind could separate the edible part – heavier – from the dry bits of pod – lighter and so carried away by the wind.) The Pergola with the Cistern: This part was completely rebuilt following the stories of Grandpa Toto, who remembered, as a child, “walking along a colonnade leading to the cistern, covered with pergolas of white pizzutella grapes and surrounded by flowers”. Following these clues, we found the opening of the cistern, sealed under some old stone blocks and hidden by brambles; around it we rebuilt the old “pistale” (the cistern mouth), the avenue and the pergola, which in perspective links back up with the old building. Here too we used salvaged materials, such as the old stone blocks from the cistern mouth, the small wrought-iron arch with its pulley (trozzula) and the iron beams that top the columns of the pergola and support the new pizzutella vines planted along the whole avenue in 2016. Alternating with the vines, we also planted various kinds of roses and Mediterranean scrub plants, above all rosemary, lavender and myrtle. Around the cistern we have recreated a small space with Pietra Leccese benches that can host small events for up to 20 people, for an open-air aperitivo or small business meetings, surrounded by the peace and quiet of the Salento countryside. The Pajara (or lu Pajaru): this typical stone building was built using the dry-stone technique and reinforced on the inside with tufa blocks to make it more welcoming. In its architectural form and in the materials used to build it, it faithfully reflects the typical structures dotted across the Salento countryside. Its name is also etymologically close to our family’s surname. In the past the structure served as a shelter for farm tools and as a store for straw and hay. Today it stands next to the orchard and has a small patio with two columns supporting the wisteria pergola, which, when in bloom, makes this corner of our masseria enchanting and fairytale-like.
The Masseria Ferarelli - Trepizzi property covers about 15,000 m² in the Vicinale Doleo area, within the municipality of Diso, in the Province of Lecce, equidistant from the small villages of Diso, Marittima and Andrano. Our masseria lies right on the edge of the Costa Otranto - Santa Maria di Leuca and Bosco di Tricase Regional Nature Park, just 3 km from the sea (the Acquaviva cove) and about 4.5 km from the little piazza of Castro Marina. The property is the result of joining two plots that were previously known as: Ferarelli (or Ferareddrhi): a local term that probably comes from the combination of the dialect word “fore”, meaning countryside, and “aricelli”, which refers to a small threshing floor used for threshing cereals but above all pulses, which have always been grown in this area and for a long time provided food and a living for the farming families of the area. The red clay soils found here favour the growing of pulses and give excellent yields. This plot has belonged to the Pagliara family for many generations and is still recorded in the land registry as a ficheto, that is, an area for growing figs; Trepizzi: in dialect this literally means “three points”, after the triangular shape of the plot, which is bounded by Via Vecchia Castiglione and Vicinale Doleo. This piece of land is very special because in its recent history, that is over the last 150 years, it has served a number of purposes, which we have been able to piece together from the stories of the local elders: for the last 30 years, until it was bought by its current owners, it lay completely abandoned and uncultivated, which allowed wild vegetation to take hold and an astonishingly concentrated biodiversity of Mediterranean flora to flourish across just a few thousand square metres; before that, the same land was used to grow tobacco, another vital source of income in Salento until the late 1970s and early 1980s. The shape of this land and of the neighbouring plots, however, leaves no doubt about what it once was: a quarry of limestone tufa blocks that were “zuccati” by hand (zoccu is the pickaxe, hence the dialect term zuccare, which literally means cut with a pickaxe) and used to build the old villages nearby. This plot was acquired by the Pagliara – Lisci family in 2018.
After Dad died, I found myself sorting out the storerooms and sheds at home and out in the countryside. Tools, sacks, mats, utensils of every kind (seemingly useless), salvaged and kept. And then ropes, nets, sheets… Stored in an old fridge used as a sort of safe, arranged in a myriad of containers of every type and shape (jerrycans, jars, screw-top bottles, boxes…), carefully selected and catalogued, there were a great many seeds. Pumpkins, Courgette, Meloncella, Round tomato, Winter tomato, Basil, Turnip tops, Mugnulu (Green Cabbage), Chicory, Romanelle, Onions, Garlic, Parsley, Celery, Chard… and then: Chickpeas, Black Chickpeas, Peas, Roveja, Broad beans, Lupins, Dòlica (Grass peas), Lentils, Beans, Black-eyed beans, Borlotti beans, Green beans… I stood there, amazed that, unlike the rest of the room, which seemed to be in total disarray, this corner, this fridge full of compartments, was so neatly organised... Mice! I told myself – he had arranged the seeds in the fridge like this to protect them from mice, it was obvious! I went back to the cleaning; I was in a hurry to tidy up and put things in order, throwing away everything that seemed useless to me, and that is what I did. I started with a thorough clear-out, trying to keep all the tools that might still come in handy, as well as the oldest ones, as a keepsake for the future. Sacks, ropes, canes, ladders: I sorted everything out, removing and throwing away whatever was superfluous, but there was one thing I couldn’t work out: how was I going to get rid of that bulky, ugly fridge? It was too heavy to move on my own and, above all, I had no idea where to put it… I’d think about it later. A few days later, while I was chatting with a friend, he told me that this kind of waste is in demand, because various materials such as iron, copper and other metals can be recovered from it. He gave me the number of a man who collected scrap metal: I could call him and he would take care of carting away that bulky piece of junk, and at no cost at all! I called him straight away and we agreed that the next day he would come and load up the fridge along with other scrap metal I no longer needed and had to get rid of. They say it’s always best to sleep on it, and so it was: in the night I was literally struck by a very simple thought: That fridge was the Legacy handed down to me by my Father. I didn’t sleep a wink all night and, afraid that “the scrap man” would take away my safe with Dad’s legacy inside, by 6 a.m. I was already out in the countryside… luckily it was still there! I carefully emptied the fridge, putting all those jars into wooden crates, so that the fridge was ready for the scrap man. The “Treasure” was safe at last; now I could get rid of the safe! That was where my passion for the countryside began.
