The park with pine woods and coves with clear water
Nardò, one of the main towns of the Salento, has a magnificent baroque centre, with Piazza Salandra, one of the most beautiful squares in Apulia, with the Guglia dell'Immacolata, a spire of carved stone, and palaces and churches decorated in the Lecce baroque style. But the town is also known for its coast, part of which is protected by the Regional Natural Park of Porto Selvaggio and Palude del Capitano.
Porto Selvaggio, the "wild port", is a small bay of rocks and pebbles with an extraordinarily clear, cold sea, fed by underwater freshwater springs, surrounded by a dense pine forest planted in the 1950s, which descends to the water. It can only be reached on foot, along a path of about a kilometre through the woods from the car park. The park also includes coastal watchtowers, such as the Torre dell'Alto on the cliff with a magnificent view, caves inhabited by Neanderthals, like the Grotta del Cavallo, where some of the oldest remains of modern humans in Europe were found, and the Palude del Capitano, with its "spunnulate", karst sinkholes filled with water. The park is dedicated to the memory of Renata Fonte, a councillor killed in 1984 for opposing building speculation on this coast.
Tip: wear shoes for rocks and bring water; the sunset from the Torre dell'Alto over the Ionian Sea is unforgettable.
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