Cammino del Salento, Day 4 (of 5). Santa Cesarea Terme to Marina Serra (23.5 km).

Santa Cesarea Terme to Marina Serra, Puglia, Italy. Tuesday 19-September-2023.

The weather forecast was for a hotter day so we made an early start from Santa Cesarea Terme to make most of the morning cool.

Our target was breakfast at Castro near the castello. We know Castro because we have friends with an apartment there. We got there in about 1½ hr and had a breakfast at their local cafe. We also got the cafe to make us up a couple of rolls as we were expecting to be in the middle of nowhere at lunchtime.

The first stamp was due from the castello however it was not yet open so the cafe did the honours with what looks like their VAT stamp.

More beautiful coastline - well it is the via del mare route! In fact not all our time was spent on the coast as many times the route meandered inland and back out again.

We were amused by this decorated stump of a tree. A bottle tree?

Campanula type plant growing out of bedrock. Given the late summer dryness we didn't see too much in the way of flowers so these were a splash of loveliness.

After nearly 20km this steep downhill to our lunch stop was hard. There was a cafe / supermarket so we bought some drinks and discreetly ate our rolls.

We had allowed time for an extended lunch break so there was time for for Mary to have a swim at Porto Tricase.

When you don't have a swimsuit, swim in leggings and sports bra and dry off in the sun.

On the way out of town somebody went to some effort to make this sign. "Slow down. Danger. Kittens." There must be a story there.

Distance: 23.55 km, Walking Time: 5:38 hr, Steps: 33,000 again. We are very consistent.

From one extreme to the other. After the elegant Villa Raffaella this night's accommodation was the perfectly homely B&B Rifugio dei Lavaturi. Hot shower, comfy bed and a fridge for our water.

Marina Serra is a bit of a one-horse town. There was only one bar / pizza restaurant open so that made our choice for us. Expectations were modest but it turned out to be excellent. Beer is beer but they had a reasonable selection and the pizza was really good with a lactose free mozzarella for Mary.