We are Elena and Lino and it will be a pleasure for us to host you in our houses, wholly designed to let you live a special stay in the lovely Taranto, which still allows its visitors to breathe a past dense of history and legend.

It is really with a wonderful legend that we would like to begin our and your journey. Bamboo is our fairy tale, a story that gives hope to our city and us. The true essence of resilience and perseverance lies in it. We are glad to describe this story to those who don’t know it yet and repeat it to those who have already heard it, so to let you understand our why.

“A long time ago two farmers were out for a stroll. At one point, a stall caught their attention: on the counter they noticed some seeds they had never seen before. So they stopped and asked for information:

“Merchant, what kind of seeds are those?”, one of the two farmers began.

“Those are bamboo seeds. They come from East and are really special”, the vendor answered.

“Why are they so special?”, one of the two farmers asked.

“If you plant them, you will understand why. They just need water and fertilizer”, the vendor answered.

So the two farmers, full of curiosity, bought a few seeds of that strange plant called bamboo. Once back to their village, they planted the seeds and began watering and fertilizing the soil as they had been told.

Time passed by, but not a bamboo seedling had sprouted. On the contrary, all the other plants were growing and fruiting.

One farmer told the other: “That old merchant fooled us. Those seeds are useless”. He stopped to take care of them, while the other kept cultivating his seeds according to the merchant’s instrucions.

More time passed by, but the seeds did not sprout. The farmer was about to give up, but one day he eventually saw the bamboo seedling sprouting. He remained completely awestruck after 6 weeks, noticing his bamboo plants had grown 30 meters high.

How is it possible bamboo plants had taken 7 years to sprout and only 6 weeks to get so high?

Very simple: in 7 years of seeming idleness, the bamboo plants had been building the complex root system which had allowed such a fabulous growth.