A taste of this is the beginning of Ferzan Özpetek's film Mine vaganti in collaboration with Rai Cinema. Olive groves, dry stone walls, fortified towers: 10 minutes of well-deserved fame for a land that has been able to preserve the beauty of all that is authentic.
Welcome to Otranto, one of Italy's most beautiful villages, the country's easternmost city: the right place to awaken your capacity for wonder.
If you are looking for inspiration, if you want to travel through history, if you are looking for lautentico, if you are fascinated by different cultures.
Otranto is still Europe, but it feels like the Orient. The coast on the Adriatic is the wildest and most unspoiled Salento there is. There are caves with unrepeatable plays of colors and reflections.
Otranto is a fortress built on the water, the historic center a treasure chest protected by the Angevin walls. Everyone has really passed on those basils: Macedonians, Greeks, Turks, Romans, Byzantines. And traces of each of them are still very visible. A few kilometers from the city landed Aeneas, St. Paul also passed through here, from Otranto departed the crusade organized by Frederick II. The city led a vast territory that included parts of Apulia, Basilicata and northern Calabria.
A few days' vacation on the Adriatic gives you the chance to see some of the most beautiful beaches in Salento, but not only. In the surrounding area there are historic villages, postcard views and natural beauty that are absolutely worth seeing. So if you're about to spend your vacation in Salento, here is the complete guide on what to see, what to do and where to find the most beautiful beaches in Otranto, unusual destinations and must-see experiences within a 20 km radius of the city
On the slopes of the old town: Strange to say, but Otranto's beach is right in the center of the old town, a stone's throw from the entrance to the old town, restaurants and businesses.
Alimini beach: a lush pine forest, high dunes and an open coastline in a semicircle behind which stand two lakes of marshy origin, Alimini grande and Alimini piccolo. Ideal for families and on very hot days to find refreshment in the green pine forest.
Baia dei turchi: is among the most loved and renowned beaches of the Idruntine coast, a corner of paradise, worthy of the best exotic postcards, with fine white sand enriched by a pine forest of fragrant and lush Mediterranean vegetation. In 2009 it was the most reported of Puglia for thePlaces of the Heart of theFai Fondo per lambiente italiano.
Baia delle Orte: Besides swimming and walking, you can plan diving, spearfishing and trekking. Between the white tongue of Punta Facì and Capo d'Otranto, Baia delle Orte is a cobalt blue stretch of water among the most populated for marine fauna. Ideal for spearfishing.
Too high above sea level to hear seagulls skimming the water's surface. Too low above the road surface to hear the sound of cars. The Palascìa lighthouse, along the cliffs of Otranto, is suspended in an ethereal space of silence. We are at the easternmost point in Italy, in Salento, 72 km from Albania.
The lighthouse, one of five in the land of Otranto, has watched over the nautical boundary between the Adriatic and Ionian seas for 150 years. Before that, davvistamento towers built by the Romans stood there. Palascia, today, is wind, sea, scents, Mediterranean. Under its shadow thousands have found the answers they were looking for. It may be the view, where photographers, painters and writers find inspiration. It may be that here one learns to listen to the wind. It may be that to get there one crosses old cart tracks, Roman roads, ancient sheep-tracks and sheer cliffs. It may be that every new beginning starts here. Every day the first dawn of Italy rises there. Our advice: go there in the evening and watch the stars from a privileged vantage point.
HOW TO GET THERE: The Palascìa lighthouse is located just outside Otranto, along the sp.87 Otranto - Porto Badisco coast road.
We advise you to get there by looking only at the ground on the way: when you arrive at your destination and look up, you will see something you have never seen before. Otranto's bauxite quarries are a true surprise of nature, the palette of colors you won't taspect. There is an emerald green pond. There are rust-red rocks. Bushes and plants in intense, bright tones. The feeling that dominates is that of being out of the world. Anincredible atmosphere of peace reigns. The pond was formed by water seepage that followed the abandonment of the quarry; the exceptional uniqueness of its color is due to the remnants of bauxite that still remain.
Can a place be a harbinger of peace? Yes, the historic center of Otranto, a world cultural heritage site recognized byUnesco, is.
Walking on the ancient cobblestones made of living stones means witnessing a dialogue, that between very different cultures. It means learning that a coexistence between West and East is possible. More, that their coexistence is one of the most successful art forms.
At the edges of some houses one can still see large granite spheres, catapulted by Saracen bombards in 1480. They lie there from time immemorial as a reminder of the Ottoman invasion that struck the people of Otranto. Today they are part of the city's charm. Like the relics of the 800 martyrs, the Idruntines who sacrificed their lives to defend the city from the invasion of the Turks.
Their remains are now protected in the 1088 Cathedral of the Annunziata, the largest church in Apulia, the heart of Otranto and of mysterious theories about it.
In it, built on the remains of a Roman domus, a Messapic village and an early Christian temple, an Arab, Baroque and Romanesquestyle coexist.
A curiosity? Otranto Cathedral is best known worldwide for the mosaic that paves its entire area with esoteric and messianic content that has not yet been interpreted.
For long stretches Otranto takes on the features of a medieval village. Porta Terra, along with Porta a mare the two gateways into the city, stand on a rampart dating from the Napoleonic era. The triangular square in the center, on the other hand, dates from the 16th century.
The timeline is present here at every salient moment.
There is also no shortage of typical craft stores, restaurants overlooking the sea and cool clubs, populated by young people until the first light of dawn. The most striking are those that, from the ramparts, overlook the sea, adding an exclusive panorama to the beauty of an evening with friends.
Torre dellOrso, San Foca, Roca, SantAndrea and Torre Specchia, five places of unchanged beauty. It is no coincidence that Melendugno 's crystal-clear waters hold the Blue Flag title, the Green Flag as a child-friendly resort and the Five Sails Legambiente for water quality and climate.
Torre dellOrso is known for its silver beaches, the 16th-century coastal tower that gives it its name and two stacks in the sea erected by nature. According to legend, two Salento sisters saw the sea here for the first time in their lives. And the joy was so great that one of them jumped off the cliff, although she did not know how to swim. The other sister, to save her, did the same thing. Neither of them returned home, and it is popular memory that the gods, pitied by their sad story, transformed them into the two stacks that guard the beach. Along the bay today are Lido Costa dOriente, Lido La Sorgente and LOrsetta.
Roca is a magical place to see at least once in a lifetime. It was a thriving Messapian town, between Torre dellOrso and San Foca, with a castle and a small island. Today, with its Cave of Poetry, it is one of the ten most beautiful natural pools in the world. Perhaps because it is entirely the work of nature, which jealously preserves it, keeping it away from human contamination. But why is it called the Cave of Poetry? Because a princess bathed there who was so beautiful that she inspired artists and poets who were able to compose verses of dalta poetry there, thanks to the transparent waters of the cave and the girl's charm.
HOW TO GET TO THE CAVE OF POETRY?
State Road San Cataldo-Otranto, Roca Vecchia, Melendugno LE
Having fled the city of Troy that had fallen into enemy hands, Aeneas, protagonist of Homer's Aeneid, arrived on the Adriatic coast. In Porto Badisco, to be exact, 8 km from Otranto. But it is the only legend about this area. The rest is a certainty.
So is, for example, the review of the Telegraph, a British newspaper, which listed it among the most beautiful beaches in Puglia.
Why visit Porto Badisco? Just to get there, driving along the Otranto Santa Cesarea Terme coast road, you will see breathtaking views. And when you think you already have your heart filled with beauty, you are still only halfway there. Badisco is a natural inlet with calm, crystal-clear waters, embraced by greenery. And one of the rare cases of high coastline still intact with a deep blue sea. The scents of sage and thyme blend with the smell of the sea, the seabed is reminiscent of tropical ones, all around grow olive and oak trees.
And a fixed stop on trekking and hiking routes. It inspires photographers and artists, and it is not uncommon to meet some of them. Not only that. Badisco is also beloved by history buffs. There stands the Grotta dei Cervi, renamed lAntro di Enea, one of the most important hypogeal complexes in Europe with Neolithic inscriptions that have remained intact.
A coffee in the square in front of the Cathedral an ancient Byzantine basilica from 1171 and then a stroll through the old town for a glass of wine on the slopes of the Castle. And the charm of Castro. Panoramas, tunnels, white houses, flowering alleys. An ancient heart overlooking the bay from above, and Castro Marina, down below, with its small harbor, excellent seafood restaurants and bathing establishments.
But the star in Castro is her, the cave of the Zinzulusa. And the most famous cave in all of Salento, visited by more than 100,000 visitors a year. You can't say you've visited without a stop among the zinzuli, stalactites and stalagmites that decorate the cave's interior. The first impact, after a 150-meter walk, is a highly scenic entrance, one of the largest karst phenomena in Puglia. The innermost part of the cave is Il Duomo, dating from the Cretaceous, with the crystal-clear waters of the Cocito, a biologically protected area.
A rocky outcrop overlooking the sea dominated by turquoise color and an arabesque atmosphere. This is the peculiarity of Santa Cesarea, Salento's noble living room, made famous by the sulfur waters and thermal muds that make it a wellness destination for all of southern Italy. Not only that. Santa Cesarea develops in height, on different vertical levels.
In the lower part rise the thermal center, natural sulfur pools and bathing establishments.
At mid-height are sumptuous villas in Moorish, Art Nouveau, and Oriental styles. Villa Sticchi and Villa Raffaella, for example, 19th-century aristocratic residences overlooking the sea, are a concrete syncretism of Western and exotic styles.
On the upper part of the town, on the other hand, reached on foot from the numerous stairways carved into the rock, it is possible to walk along an enchanting road immersed in vegetation with a Belvedere from which to admire in a single glance the entire Adriatic coast of South Salento as far as Santa Maria di Leuca.
For those who love snorkeling, then, a must is the Bay of Porto Miggiano, a strip of coast sheltered from the winds, with a sandy and transparent seabed where nature plays with lights and colors.
For its commercial vibrancy, it is considered the wealthy capital of Lower Salento. Boutiques, fashion, gift and design stores line the gilded stones of the historic center, home to the area's most noble and aristocratic families. And just a few meters from the central Piazza Capece, a good living room for residents and visitors who stop at its cafes and renowned pastry shops, stands the monument to Aldo Moro, an Italian statesman born in Maglie itself.
Every year in August, all of Puglia's food & wine also meets there: the Mercatino del Gusto is one of the longest-running food and wine showcases in Salento, gathering thousands of visitors with its hospitable dinners in courtyards, a selection of street food, barbecued meats, fresh fish and seasonal vegetables expertly prepared by the best chefs in southern Italy.
A cultural itinerary in the city can only start from its historic center, an interesting mix of 16th-century and Baroque, when not 18th-century, building art. Its many aristocratic palaces and grand churches still testify to a glorious and flourishing artistic past.
And it's time to plan your vacation in Otranto! To discover the Otranto area in all its resounding beauty, it will be useful for you to search for the solution best suited to your needs among the many vacation homes in and around Otranto. Find your retreat and enjoy your time.
