Taranto is a city between two seas. The old town sits on a small island between the Mar Grande, an open bay of the Gulf of Taranto, and the Mar Piccolo, an inner lagoon, connected to the mainland by bridges, including a swing bridge that opens to let warships pass into the naval base. Founded by Spartan colonists in the eighth century BC as Taras, it became one of the richest and most powerful cities of Magna Graecia, the Greek world in southern Italy, before falling to Rome.
The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, the MArTA, is one of the finest in Italy, with a collection of gold jewellery, the Gold of Taranto, as well as sculptures, vases and mosaics from the Greek and Roman city. Allow a good two hours. The old town, Taranto Vecchia, is atmospheric but partly run down, with narrow alleys, a cathedral and the Castello Aragonese, a fortress built by the Aragonese kings of Naples in the fifteenth century, which can be visited with guides from the navy. The remains of a Doric temple stand near the castle.
Taranto's modern history has been dominated by its huge steelworks, one of the largest in Europe, which has brought jobs but also serious pollution problems that remain a subject of controversy. The city is also famous for its mussels, cultivated in the Mar Piccolo for centuries, and its seafood is excellent.
The riding around Taranto is mostly flat, along the coast and across the plain. To the west, the coast road toward Metaponto and the beaches of the Ionian Sea is straight and busy in summer. To the north, the Murgia plateau offers more interesting roads, with gentle curves through olive groves and dry-stone walls, toward Martina Franca, Locorotondo and the trulli of the Itria valley. Matera, about eighty kilometres away, with its cave dwellings, makes a great day ride. City traffic is heavy and chaotic, so park and walk in the centre.
Taranto has every service. Spring and autumn are ideal; summer in Puglia is very hot.