Where the Appian Way ends, the Adriatic begins — gateway to Greece and the East
Brindisi sits at the end of the Via Appia — the great Roman road from Rome — on a natural harbour so perfectly formed that the Romans called it Brundisium, the 'deer's head' for the shape of its branching inlets. The column that marked the road's terminus still stands, though its capital is now in Lecce. Brindisi is not a showpiece city — it's a working port, the main crossing point for ferries to Greece and Albania — but that gives it an authentic, unglamorous energy that the more polished Lecce lacks. The Cathedral contains one of the oldest Crusader churches in Italy; the waterfront is lin…
Brundisium was where Julius Caesar's rival Pompey fled after his defeat at Pharsalus, and where Virgil died in 19 BC on his way back from Greece (the house is still pointed out). It was the primary embarkation point for the Crusades — Richard the Lionheart and the Emperor Frederick II both left from here — and the city flourished as a result. The Norman Cathedral (1089) was the site of Frederick II's marriage to Yolande of Jerusalem. The city was captured, sacked, and exchanged between Normans, Hohenstaufen, Angevins, Aragonese, and Bourbons, but the harbour has been continuously operational…