Illuminations

Who makes them

The Parisi family has been lighting Salento's festivals for generations: the same hands that raise the arches in the squares build these pieces for the home. Their work has decorated Dior windows and been shown at the Kobe Luminarie in Japan. Every luminaria is built by hand, one at a time — frame, wiring, fitting each bulb. That is why the timing is not that of a mass-produced object.

The shapes

The prickly pear is the most Salento of them all, and comes three ways: whole for a table, halved to sit against a wall, and hanging. The flower — the daisy of village lights — comes whole and halved. Then the star, the heart and the cloud, the ones most often asked for children's rooms and for events.

Where they go

Indoors they give atmosphere: above a sofa, in a bedroom, behind a bar counter. They are LED, so they use little power and stay cool. Outdoors they belong under a canopy or a porch, sheltered from driving rain. Many people use them for weddings and events: a heart-shaped luminaria behind the top table does more than any amount of styling.

As a gift

It is the present nobody else thinks of. It arrives ready to hang or to stand, and whoever receives it knows at once where it comes from: it is festival Puglia, reduced to a single piece.