Brindisi is where the Appian Way ends, and the Romans knew it as Brundisium. The old road ran from Rome across southern Italy to this harbour, the gateway to Greece and the East, and a tall Roman column near the waterfront marks its final stretch; a second column stood beside it until it was taken to Lecce in the seventeenth century. The harbour itself is a long, sheltered inlet, a natural port that has served merchants, crusaders and armies for more than two thousand years.
The poet Virgil died here in 19 BC on his way back from Greece, and the town has never let anyone forget it. Julius Caesar besieged Pompey here in the civil war, and in the Middle Ages the crusaders gathered at the port. Today the old centre has the Swabian castle, built by the emperor Frederick II, and an Aragonese fortress on an island in the harbour, plus a small, tidy historic quarter with churches and narrow streets. The sea breeze, the smell of salt and diesel from the docks, and the sound of the ferries create a feeling of arrival and departure.
Riding in the city is like riding in any busy southern Italian town: traffic is quick, pedestrians cross when they please, and scooters appear from every direction. Outside, the roads of Salento are flat and fast, with long straights through olive groves, vineyards and low stone walls, and pleasant coastal stretches to the north and south. Surfaces are generally good but can be rough on minor roads, and summer heat is intense in July and August. Spring and early autumn are the best seasons, with light that makes the whitewashed villages glow.
Brindisi has fuel at every turn, and the centre is full of cafés, bars and restaurants serving fresh seafood, orecchiette with turnip tops, and the local taralli, ring-shaped crackers that go well with wine from the Salento. Park near the waterfront and walk the old streets, because the historic centre has limited-traffic zones that catch the unwary. If you are catching a ferry, arrive early, and take a moment at the column, where one of the great roads of the ancient world quietly ends.