Porto Vecchio
The Porto Vecchio is the inner cove of Brindisi’s natural harbour: the quiet sheet of water where the history of the Mediterranean has caught its breath for two thousand years.
The threshold of the Empire
The Messapians called this harbour by a name meaning “stag’s head”, from the two inlets seen from above. It was here that the Appian Way ended its journey of of about 540 kilometres from Rome: legionaries, merchants and senators stepped down from the dusty roadways to find this horizon. Brindisi was the Empire’s gate to the East, and this basin was its threshold.
A safe anchorage
The two coves protect ships from the offshore winds, creating a safe refuge in every season. It was no accident that Frederick II chose it as a naval base and that Bohemond’s crusaders sailed from this coast in 1096. Every quay tells of a departure, an arrival, a farewell, under the same light that perhaps accompanied Virgil, who died here in 19 BC.
Where it is
Via Montenegro 24