It was 1965 when Attilio Caroli and Gilda Nuzzolese decided to undertake a new challenging activity in Santa Maria di Leuca.
Attilio was from Taurisano, an agricultural town in Salento, and Gilda, being a teacher, moved from Bari, her home town, to Taurisano in order to teach to her primary school pupils. They both were new to the world of the hotel hospitality. Together with his father Cosimo and his brothers, Attilio had been managing a farm that, besides being known for dealing in wines and oil of Salento, was renowned for the harvest of dried figs, that were used in the production of distillates and coffee surrogates exported to Austrian market.
Thanks to the support of their daughter Maria Domenica and their son-in-law Mario, a surgeon that had lent himself to hotel trade, their activity expanded from the Hotel Terminal in Santa Maria di Leuca to the acquisition and then, in 1976, the finishing of the Hotel Complex Le Sirenuse in Gallipoli. It was the beginning of the tourist trade in Salento and the excellent relations with Italian travel agents and Foreign tour operators did confirm that they had won their bet. Attilio and Gilda had managed their hotels with care and steady presence, with the support of those valuable members of their team that still today are in service.
With the coming of the third generation of the Caroli – Caputo family and the acquisition of new facilities for tourists in Gallipoli, like Joli Park Hotel and Bellavista Club, and in Santa Maria di Leuca, like Villa La Meridiana, it was the birth of the Caroli Hotels, that today, together with the management of more than one thousand beds, are active in the marketing, with the merchandise mark Caroli House and Boat, of valuable premises in Apulia and sailing boat charters; and, with the mark La Dispensa di Caroli, they promote wine and gastronomic deliciousness of Salento, keeping up the family tradition, with the happy figs-hotellerie union.