Salento, extreme south-east end of Puglia, is surrounded by two seas, Adriatic and Ionian, with 250 km of coasts, shores, crystal clear sea, wonderful breathtaking landscapes. Impressive cliffs overhanging the sea characterize the Adriatic coastline between Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca, the same feature that we find in Santa Cesarea, famous for its thermal baths; On the Ionian coast we find Ugento, an ancient Messapic centre, and Gallipoli, from the greek 'Kalé Polis' which means 'beautiful city', made by an ancient town entirely builded upon an island and a new, modern, city.
Placed in the heart of the Salento, Galatina, firstly called St. Pietro in Galatina, was probably a Greek colony from the place-name of the city 'beautiful Athens' or 'Athens of milk.' Originally the coat- of- arms of the city represented two crossed keys, symbol of the fidelity towards the Roman church and the Vatican. In fact the coat-of-arms was given by the Pope Urbano V to Raimondello Orsini del Balzo, who had saved him from the Angevin siege of Nocera Umbra and sheltered him in Genoa. So the Pope gave Raimondello Orsini the permission, by a Papal, to build up the Church of Saint Caterina in Alexandria with an hospital, (the actual Town hall of the city) and the Franciscan Convent. At the end of the XIV century, the scholars of the time, in order to remember the Greek origins of the city, added to the original coat-of-arms the owl (symbol of Athens), the goddess Minerva and the baronial crown with three tips put inside the shield and above the keys.