Otranto

Otranto 1480: 150 Turkish galleys with more than 18,000 men aboard lay siege to the city with the intention of invading Italian soil and pushing as far as San Pietro. The conclusion of this succession of events can be discovered in the crypt of the magnificent Romanesque cathedral in Otranto, where precious and peculiar relics narrate the thousand-year-old story of this extreme outreach of Christianity which has always stretched towards the culture and the threat of the Orient. But Otranto is more than just history; its laneways and squares slow down time and the senses are relaxed by the vista of the crystal sea from the height of its bastions. While you await the evening … don’t miss: a stroll to the Palascìa lighthouse, the easternmost point in Italy, outside the residential area on the south-bound coast road near the military base; and for a touch of organized chaos, the feast of the Holy Martyrs, celebrated on 14th and 15th of August.

Distance from Lecce: 45 km > national road SS 16 Maglie-Otranto exit Otranto - Time 40 mins.