The name Taranto originated the words tarantism,tarantella and tarantula:
not surprisingly tarantism episodes were frequent
in Lizzano before World War II.
Lizzano is a typical small village (around 7000 inhabitants)of the Salento. It belongs to the Taranto province but its culture is more near to Lecce, as is evident from the local dialect very different from the variety spoken in Taranto. Anyhow the influence of Taranto (which is only 25 Km away) and its Greek civilization can be seen from the fact that ancient tombs with greek vases and coins have been found in the country. It seems that the rich Greeks from Taranto had farms and villas in the country between Lizzano and the coast. It is very well possible that they started to grow the grapes in this zone.
The name Taranto originated the words tarantism,tarantella and tarantula:
not surprisingly tarantism episodes were frequent
in Lizzano before World War II.
The attractions of this village are the wonderful beach on the Ionian Sea and the wine. Lizzano is the name of a Doc wine produced in this zone but the traditional wine of this village is the Primitivo di Manduria a red wine . The main winery in the village is the: Cantina Sociale di Lizzano.
As almost any village in Puglia, also Lizzano has its castle and a small cave nearby where basilian monks left some paintings. But the recorded history of Lizzano doesn't go before the XVI Century.