The Passeggiate d'Autore are the brainchild of the Otranto Culture Association. These itineraries are intended as true explorations of the places where the inspiration that filled the blank page with compelling stories was born.

From the imposing Aragonese Castle, the inspiration for literature's first Gothic novel, "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole, to the magnificence of the Cathedral, described as "The Lady of Otranto" by Maria Corti and the chosen setting for Roberto Cotroneo's novel "Otranto"; from the gaze cast from the Bastions toward the East, from which the Turkish ships departed in July 1480, to the house of Carmelo Bene, who dedicated "Our Lady of the Turks" to Otranto; and finally the sea "jancu e turchinu de quandu esse lu sule  a quandu cala, mare d'argentu, mare de oru finu.."  which emerges in the memories and before the now blind eyes of the poet Antonio Sforza.