Galatina

Most of Puglia is built on sandstone covering clay. The interstitial traps water, thus allowing people with access to a bore, (nearly everybody,) the ability to survive in a land with only one small river. Galatina, one of the most important towns in the Salento region, was situated in the middle of nowhere because there was a natural spring that fed water to the surface.
Now another cleaned up old town, it is famous above all for a dance.
People used to have two cures for the bite of the Tarantula. The first was to pray at the Chapel of St Paul, who miraculously cured himself of snakebite in Malta and was therefore believed to be able to cure any bite; and if that didn't work, to dance in a frenzy, which must have been more effective because it became the Tarantella and is danced to this day.
I came to see the 14th C Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria with outstanding frescoes. Unfortunately, it was closed for lunch - until 4pm.
Not to be deterred I went to Gallipoli first and then returned in time for the wedding.
In 1385 Raimondello Balzini Orsini del Balzo married Maria D'Enghen Countess of Lecce.
At the same time the Franciscans arrived to take possession of the church that Raimondello had built for them, specifically to replace the current Greek rites with Latin Orthodoxy.
The church was dedicated to Santa Caterina who had been broken on the wheel and decapitated for her faith, then transported miraculously to her burial site on Mount Sinai.
Apparently Raimondello , either as a pilgrim or as a warrior, ascended Mount Sinai and knelt at the site and attempted to kiss the Saint who was not quite buried. In the act of so doing he bit off her finger which he then stuck behind his ear under his hair to carry back to Italy.
Devotion or looting? Nobody knows.
On his return he encased the digit in a silver and commissioned a church to be built.Read more