Rocavecchia is a small beautiful place situated on a craggy and rocky coast in Salento in South Italy. It overlooks a sea of the most intense mixture of blue and green, where sometimes the south winds produce pleasant sounds and small waves of beautiful changing colours. It is not an invasive holiday village, even though in the surroundings there are a number of tourist sea resorts, fully equipped with tourist amenities.
Instead, it is an ancient town rich of history where messapians, greeks and Aragonesi, lived for long periods before being conquered by other stronger warriors. Rocavecchia history always met with the Oriental due to the Mediterranean sea where a lot of civilisations developed. During the Bronze Age it was probably inhabited by Indo-European populations. We know this because in the nearby countryside there are a lot of evidences of this period such as dolmens and menhirs that can be seen in the near towns of Melendugno, Martano and Carpignano. The first inhabitants of this land, around the V century BC, were the Messapii who were dedicated to agriculture, horse breeding and pottery. This population gave an impulse to the construction of cities with imposing stone walls a wonderful example of which can be seen just here. In fact, Rocavecchia is surrounded by a long and about four meters large thick stone wall whose bases are still exposed to view.
B&B TENUTA POZZELLO stands just behind this great stone wall which surrounds the famous ´Grotta della Poesia´ (Poesia Grotto) whose roof is covered with 4000 inscriptions in Messapician language, in greek and in latin. It is among the top ten most beautiful natural pools in the world.
On request it is also possible to visit handcraft workshops in San Foca (2 km away) and Otranto (20 km away) where you can buy things made of “terracotta”, papier maché and Lecce stone.
TENUTA POZZELLO combines the convenience of the near sea resorts of Rocavecchia and Torre dell`Orso to the beauty of the sea. It is possible to enjoy a wonderful vista of large sea expanses looking out from its windows.
Other interesting places to visit nearby are: Otranto (20 km away), Lecce (25 km away) with its baroque buildings and Melendugno (7 km away) with its strong ancient castle and its famous oil mills which produces the best olive oil in South Italy.
