Alliste is a small town in the province of Lecce, located in a valley between two nearby hills, the so-called "Serra Orientale" and the "Serra Costiera". Its territory, located on the western side of the Salento coast, is marked by slight hills, whose highest point is known as "Madonna dell'Alto", due to the presence of an ancient chapel erected by the Basilian monks in the Xth century. The toponym of Alliste derives from the word "Ali", which would refer to the wings of the Archangel Michael.

An ancient legend tells that in the ninth century the Archangel saved a group of refugees who fled from nearby Felline, besieged by the Saracens. From that moment, the survivors founded the town of Alliste, dedicating the name of the village to its protector. According to another interpretation, the toponym Alliste or "Caddiste", as it is still called in the local language, would mean "beautiful" and would refer to the particular environmental and morphological characteristics of the territory.