Otranto

The visit may start from the Castle, made in XIV century for the Aragoneses and modified by Spanish viceroys in the following century. It is a huge building with a pentagonal plan and with three cylindrical donjons and two spear shaped bastions, with a moat all around. Interiorly from the wide courtyard one goes up to the upper levels rooms. Some have been restored and are accessible, with some quite unsuccessful trial of didactics panels, some are undergoing restoration. But the space is beautiful and you have charming panoramas from the terraces, over an astoundingly limpid turquoise sea, over the town and the seaport.
From the little square before the Castle take the road to the Cathedral, stopping first to see St. Peter, the nice small Byzantine church. It is the most ancient of Otranto, coeval of the
more known Cattolica of Stilo in Calabria and similar to that one for the Greek cross plan with a central dome based on four columns. The interior ,with small and cosy spaces and the remains of the frescoes illuminated by the light from the narrow windows, is very suggestive. Outside the stone is very damaged, the surrounding buildings are so close that it's impossible to take a photo of the whole.
Going across the charming alleys flanked by whitewashed white low buildings, the frames often blue and the coloured spots of flowering Bouganvilleas, with sudden views over an impossibly blue sea, letting yourself be appealed here and there by some many coloured little shop, you will arrive to the Cathedral, dating back to 1088. Remember it will inexorably close at 12 a. m., to re-open possibly at 4 p. m.! The church is the biggest of the county and undoubtedly one of the most beautiful ones of Puglia's Romanesque style. The simple façade, in light local limestone only decorated by the elegant XV century rose window and the huge XVII century portal, closes a slightly downward square, decidedly a suggestive sight.
The interior is severe, entirely in limestone, with an homogeneous effect though the 42 monolithic columns are salvaged and in different types of marble. The lightness of the walls makes an odd contrast with the super-decorated coffered ceiling of a much later age.
The floor is entirely covered by a splendid mosaic with polychrome tesseras made in 1163-1166, the only one with a religious subject to survive in South Italy. In this are depicted allegories said "life trees", with a very rich symbolism, worthy to delve into if one has the time.
One more curiosity are the martyrs relics, whose bones and skulls are exposed in three wide windows around an altar.
Going down to the sea from the Cathedral one may admire the city walls, re-built in XVI century by Spanish viceroys and the beautiful Alfonsina Gate, whose name comes from Alfonso of Aragona, for whom it was made at the end of '400.