1 month ago
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January 19, 2026 — 5:00am
The world might have fallen in love with Puglia, but the east coast city of Otranto is about as far south as most foreign visitors will ever get.
South of Otranto, the coast road rides high along the sea cliffs which have been rising since Polignano a Mare, 150 kilometres further north, and after a 40-minute drive finds its way into Castro.
There are two parts to Castro, the hilltop old town and down by the sea Castro Marina, and that’s what you want. Stop at Piazza Dante and take in the view from the panoramic terrace.
Clustered around a bay, cradled by creamy limestone cliffs with a shivering, luminous blue sea at its feet, Castro Marina has been crafted by the gods. Posh it’s not. It’s more Zara than Prada, but this rough-hewn, rocky area deep in the Salento region is a haven for sea lovers. It’s also where Italians come to be Italian.
The place to stay is Hotel La Roccia, which sits on an elevated shelf with the sea lapping at the rocks below. Rooms are simple but comfortable, and everyone gets a balcony with a sea view.
At the front is a lido, with steps leading into the sea. For a perfect day of sloth and sociology, slip in for a sea dip, shower off, sit in your shady deck chair and order plates of calamari fritti and fresh fruit. The price is miraculous. In September 2025, a 25 square metre room cost €142 ($255) a night.
Castro Marina traditionally made its living from the sea and its seafood restaurants shine. Grotta del Conte, Isola del Sole and Friggitoria Porto Vecchio all turn out variations on fried calamari, linguine with mixed seafood, mussels, swordfish and tuna dishes while Martinucci Laboratory in the piazza does pastries, gelato and sunshine. The price of a meal is about half what you’d pay anywhere along the coast from Otranto north and the food is twice as good.
If you want to add some gloss to your holiday, take a short drive south along the coast to Tricase Porto and stop off for lunch at Mename. It’s a different tribe here, and Mename is a popular stop for Lycra loving cycle groups who have made the looping, swooping coast road a favourite track.
There’s style at Tricase Porto. Meryl Streep has a masseria (a traditional manor house) nearby; Helen Mirren has a 16th-century farmhouse in Tiggiano, just slightly inland.
In the other direction, the coast road to Santa Cesarea Terme plays hide and seek with the sea, twisting through the stone pines and clumps of prickly pear and rock samphire. Olive trees perch on terraced limestone walls and the villas on the seaward side will have you Googling real estate.
Crumbling stone watchtowers along this coast are a reminder of the pirate raids, once a fact of life in Salento until the early 1800s. The Ceraunian Mountains of Albania, a former outpost of the Ottoman Empire, are only 70 kilometres away across the Otranto Strait.
The best bits of the Italian coastline have been commandeered by beach clubs. To any right-thinking Australian the notion that wealth gets you a better bit of it is obnoxious, but hang on. For the price of admission you get the right to occupy a sun lounge under an umbrella, towels, hot and cold showers and a cafe, with a side serve of people watching. After an hour or so in the sun at a beach club, you will realise that la dolce vita applies to the beach as well as just about every other aspect of Italian life.
The most glamorous of the beach clubs is Bagno Marino Archi, located just south of Santa Cesarea Terme. Set on the ground floor of an amphitheatre chiselled from the cliffs, this is Instagram material on steroids but nobody here is going to photograph their affogato. Red topped umbrellas blossom along the shoreline, shading sun beds overlooking a brilliant canvas of sea and rocks.
Castro Marina is a great relief, the dessert in the Italian feast of wonders. Forget about culture, churches, architectural marvels and traipsing around in the heat. Here the only miracles are the simple, elemental pleasures of warmth, wine, brilliant scenery and the sheer sensuality of a virile culture at play.
THE DETAILS
STAY
Hotel Piccolo Mondo is a charming family-operated hotel perched on the cliffs just to the north of Castro Marina. See hotel-piccolomondo.it/en
FLY
Qatar Airways has flights between Australia and Bari, which is a 2½ hour dive from Castro Marina. See qatarairways.com/en
RELAX
For details on beach club Bagno Marino Archi, see bagnomarinoarchi.it
The writer travelled at his own expense.
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