Question 1

Brindisi on Your Own

Accepted Answer

Most of the sights in Brindisi's compact center can be seen in an afternoon on foot, starting from the Roman column above the waterfront. If you want one more stop, take the train to Lecce. The column and the steps: The surviving Roman column, 18.74 meters tall, stands at the top of the Scalinata Virgiliana, a flight of steps up from the waterfront. Its original capital, carved with gods and tritons, is shown in the Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna on Via Duomo, and a copy now sits on the column. Piazza Duomo: The cathedral and the provincial archaeological museum stand side by side on the cathedral square. A Norman church: San Giovanni al Sepolcro, a round church built by the Normans in the 11th century, is also in the old town. A short ride: Regional trains to Lecce leave from Brindisi Centrale, at the end of Corso Umberto I. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own. If your ship is at Costa Morena, allow for the bus or a taxi back.

Question 2

Getting Around Brindisi and Puglia

Accepted Answer

Brindisi's center is small: it is a little over a kilometer from the railway station to the Roman column. City buses and the harbor boat cover longer hops, and regional trains run to Lecce and Taranto. Regional trains take about half an hour to Lecce and about an hour and a quarter to Taranto. Brindisi Centrale station is on Piazza Francesco Crispi. City buses and the motobarca are run by the same company and use the same tickets. Military sites take up much of the land just north and south of the center, so walking out of town is not easy; use a bus or a car for anything farther out.

Question 3

What to Eat in Brindisi and Puglia

Accepted Answer

Restaurants in Brindisi serve the cooking of Puglia as a whole: pasta made from durum wheat, vegetables, olive oil and seafood, with mussels the shellfish used most across the region. Spaghetti alle vongole, with clams, is a standard on local menus. Orecchiette: The signature pasta shape of Puglia, often served with cime di rapa, a bitter green also called broccoli rabe. Fave e cicoria: A purée of dried broad beans served with wild chicory. Broad beans have been a staple in the region for thousands of years. The local artichoke: The carciofo brindisino carries a protected name in the European Union. Snacks: Taralli are ring-shaped crackers made with olive oil and white wine, and the rustico, puff pastry filled with béchamel, mozzarella and tomato, is popular around Lecce and the Salento. Breakfast: The pasticciotto is a pastry filled with ricotta or custard, usually eaten in the morning. Wine: Look for Primitivo di Manduria and Negroamaro, two of Puglia's own red wines.

Question 4

Tipping in Italy

Accepted Answer

In Italy a tip, la mancia, is not customary and is given only for special service. Most restaurants outside Rome charge a cover, the coperto, which appears on the bill. If you want to leave something in a restaurant, a euro or two is enough; a large tip is never expected. Leaving the change for a taxi driver is quite common. Italy uses the euro.

Question 5

Culture in Brindisi

Accepted Answer

Brindisi's monuments run from Norman churches of the 11th century to a memorial to the navy's dead finished in 1933. Most are in the old town; Santa Maria del Casale stands out by the airport. San Giovanni al Sepolcro: Two marble lions carry the columns of the 12th-century doorway of this round church, which the Normans built in the 11th century and which probably belonged to the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. San Benedetto: On Via Guglielmo Marconi, this church began, perhaps before the 11th century, as part of a Benedictine nunnery, and its 11th-century cloister keeps its decorated capitals. Santa Maria del Casale: Beside the airport, this church built in the shift from Romanesque to Gothic has a front patterned in gray and yellow stone and 14th-century frescoes inside, among them a Last Judgement by Rinaldo da Taranto. The sailors' monument: The Monument to the Italian Sailor, finished in 1933, is a 53-meter tower in the shape of a rudder, built of reinforced concrete faced in golden carparo stone. People in Brindisi call it la jatta 'ssittata, the sitting cat. A local saint: Lawrence of Brindisi, born in the city in 1559, was a Capuchin friar who was named a Doctor of the Church in 1959.

Question 6

Rome's Eastern Gateway: Brindisi Through the Ages

Accepted Answer

Brindisi's history follows its harbor. It began as a Messapian settlement, became Rome's port for the crossing to Greece, served the Crusades under the Normans and Swabians, and in 1943 and 1944 housed Italy's government. Before Rome: A Bronze Age village of the 16th century BC, with fragments of Mycenaean pottery, has been found on a headland in the outer harbor. The town itself began as a Messapian settlement called Brention. Roman Brundisium: Rome took the town in the 3rd century BC. Linked to Rome by the Via Appia and the Via Traiana, it grew to about 100,000 people and became the chief port for the crossing to Greece and the East. The poet Virgil died here in 19 BC. Decline: The Goths devastated the town in the 6th century, and its port was abandoned for several centuries. Normans and Swabians: In the 11th and 12th centuries the city revived, built its cathedral and became a main port for the Crusades. 1225: Emperor Frederick II married Isabella II of Jerusalem in the cathedral on 9 November 1225. He built the castle on the inner harbor and later set out from Brindisi on the Sixth Crusade. A blocked harbor: In 1446 the harbor entrance was deliberately obstructed as a defense, and the port declined. Work on the Pigonati channel from 1775 to 1778 began a long effort to reopen it, finished only after Italian unification. 1743: An earthquake on 20 February 1743 destroyed the cathedral, which was rebuilt in the 18th century. The route to India: After the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the British mail for India passed through Brindisi from 1870 until 1914. 1943 to 1944: From September 1943 to February 1944, Brindisi was the temporary seat of the Kingdom of Italy's government, and King Victor Emmanuel III lived in the Swabian castle. To learn more ashore: The provincial archaeological museum Francesco Ribezzo, on Piazza Duomo beside the cathedral, holds the bronzes recovered from the sea at Punta del Serrone in 1992.

Question 7

Brindisi with Children

Accepted Answer

A family day in Brindisi can stay small: a boat ride across the harbor, a climb inside the sailors' monument, and the Roman column on the waterfront. Older children can add a museum or the train to Lecce. Younger children: Ride the motobarca across the inner harbor to the Casale district and back on an ordinary bus ticket. School age: Inside the Monument to the Italian Sailor, the crypt is shaped like an upturned hull and holds the bell of the battleship Benedetto Brin, which blew up in the harbor in 1915. A spiral staircase and an elevator go up to the top, with a view over the city and the harbor. Teenagers: The archaeological museum's bronzes came from the seabed at Punta del Serrone, and the train to Lecce makes a second city possible in one day.

Question 8

Accessibility in Brindisi

Accepted Answer

Several of Brindisi's sights involve steps, and the central railway station has no elevators or ramps. Check access for each building before you set out. Reaching the Roman column from the waterfront means climbing the Scalinata Virgiliana. Brindisi Centrale station has stairs only, with no elevators or ramps. The exhibitions on the upper floor of the Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna are reached by elevator. The top of the sailors' monument can be reached by a spiral staircase or an elevator.

Question 9

Shopping in Brindisi

Accepted Answer

Brindisi's center has many clothing and specialty shops and a fruit and vegetable market. Outside the summer season, many shops close for a few hours in the early afternoon, from about 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; check before you go. The produce market on Piazza Mercato is open every day except Saturday. Friselle, a twice-baked bread, have a long shelf life, which makes them practical to carry home. Puglia is Italy's largest producer of olive oil.

Question 10

Beaches Near Brindisi

Accepted Answer

The beaches near Brindisi lie outside the city to the north, and a car is the practical way to reach them. Torre Guaceto, 17 km north of Brindisi, is a state nature reserve and marine reserve of about 1,200 hectares with 8 km of coast, where the beach gives way to dunes and Mediterranean scrub. South of its sandy stretch, the reserve's coast turns low and rocky, with small coves. The Pedagne, a cluster of small islands in the outer harbor, are military land and not open to visitors.

Brindisi

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