Otranto Italy 🇮🇹 Walking Tour and Travel Guide – Puglia’s Hidden Gem – Castles, Beaches and More

Otranto Italy 🇮🇹 Walking Tour and Travel Guide – Puglia’s Hidden Gem – Castles, Beaches and More

Hello chain gang and welcome back to the four chains travel and our four chains in Italy playlist. This week we are very excited to be taking you to an absolutely awesome place that we found and that is Otanto, Italy. It definitely checked so many boxes for me. I would go back there in a heartbeat and I think that you’re going to love it as well. No offense to Monopoly, which is the Pulia town that markets itself as checking every box, but I think that Otanto checks most of those boxes in a much more satisfying way. Its vistas are very close to the vistas in Monopoly. It also has plenty of free parking. You can see a Maserati and a Bentley took advantage of it this day. It has the most historically significant castle in all of Pulia and we give you a full tour. This church is one of the most historically significant churches. Only St. Nicola and Bari compares. Inside you will see the answer to the hardest Italian trivia question to answer and it’s why it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records. It has a beautiful piaza. probably our second favorite to just the piaza that we showed you in Trroni. In addition, it also has beautiful beaches that are very accessible. And somehow it is still a city where you can get lost in the incredibly beautiful streets and not be surrounded by 10,000 tourists like you would be in a place like Albero Bellow. So, with no further ado, we bring you the magnificence of Otronto. I saw a lot of complaints online about no free parking in Otronto, but that’s not true. They do have a lot at the beginning of the city. And the great part about parking in that is you’ll see the sign that says Park. It’s actually the third exit off of the roundabout. But what’s cool is you park your car and look at this. As far as city gates go, you just walk in here, this is beautiful. [Music] These trees, it’s all everywhere I see them, I see that they’re manicured, but there’s no way. There’s absolutely no way all of these trees are being manicured. They just grow that way. [Music] and it leads you into just an absolutely gorgeous cemetery. [Music] You may notice that there are two signs for parking and I directed you to go to the one on the third exit. Well, that’s because if you were going to spend the entire day in the city, that one is just free parking, period. This second one is also free parking. So it might show that as free parking on your Google Maps, but if you look closely at the sign, it is free parking only for 1 hour. So go ahead and park at that one off the third exit on the roundabout. Today they’re probably going to be a little cool cooler about it cuz as you can see there is a Maserati and there is a Bentley Rolls-Royce. Uh and in the back of the Maserati is the bride. There is a wedding today, so that’s awesome. Like most Italian cities, they do have these maps at the city entrance, and the city is very walkable. We are filming a lot of castles, not just cuz we love Game of Thrones, but a lot of castles in while we’re in Italy. If you subscribe to our channel, you know that already, but this is the one that I looked forward to the most just because of the historical significance of it. So this has changed hands numerous times. It was originally uh in the hands of the Greeks and then the Romans and then the Byzantine Empire and then the Romans again. And it was for thousands of years just critically important. Essentially, if you wanted to acquire a lot of territory, Ottomans, Byzantines, Romans, Greeks, you had to have this because of where it is located in terms of trade routes. It is absolute economic lynchpin of this. And the reason why it is not today is just simply because uh Columbus discovered the United States of America or the Americas I guess I should say. And you will notice that there are a uh a lot of castles that were absolutely critical for countries and for cities um until that point of Columbus, which is really why a lot of people might look at Columbus and say, “Geez, he was a bad guy. Somebody would have discovered the United States being the most important of his discoveries uh at some point.” But the fact that he discovered it, when he did, it made Spain a superpower. But it absolutely changed the economic landscape. Essentially, there have been three mindblowing lynchpin things in all of history. The first one was Augustus Caesar winning the battle of Actium and becoming the richest person in the entire world, the richest person they’ll ever be because he controlled this one person controlled almost a third of the world’s wealth and he used that to create the Roman Empire. Uh the second one I would say would be when uh Columbus discovered America as we just talked about. And then the third one would be when the combined uh actions of Thomas Jefferson getting the Louisiana purchase and James Pulk expanding the Mexico, Canadian and then the United States borders to California which made the United States such a unique economic superpower and obviously winds up playing the decisive role in in World War I and World War II. and they were the most influential country uh that there’s maybe ever been other than Rome, you know, until possibly now when things are changing. But we’ll see how history plays out there. But we’re going to go inside. I’m so excited. I can’t even begin to tell you. You know, Angie loves her moes and obviously this being such a critical economic infrastructure, building a giant moat and giant walls and incredibly thick walls. These walls were all built to withstand cannon fire so that uh uh approaching Ottomans could not knock it down with cannon fire. Of course, the Ottomans had enough to really make a difference which is why subsequent to the Ottoman invasion, the uh so many things have been added to this structure. All right, we’re going to go in here. I don’t think we’re the only people that today that had that idea. The moat Angie must be excited. All right, here’s one of the cannons. Obviously, it goes without saying that it was normally posted at one of the outposts because almost always the invasions were by sea. There is a beach uh I’ll I’ll try to insert some footage here where uh they say that the Ottomans landed a large portion of their force to take them by surprise. And there was a uh there was a a a shadow force, a distracting force, sort of like the uh United States and Britain did in World War II. But as you can see, they still have the camera the cannons here. Awesome. And this would have been the uh hole that the cam that the uh cannon would go in. One of the most popular uh historical fiction books in Europe is the castle of O Toronto. So you might be asking yourself, hey, are you going to go to that that castle? No, that’s there’s no actual castle of Oanto. The the the illustrations in the book were taken at this castle. That isn’t the only book that has been inspired by this castle. Also, Mary Shel’s Frankenstein, not Bram Stoker’s Dracula. That is actually a castle in Romania. Um, but Dracula’s guest wa did use this castle as as inspiration. And and when we show it to you, you’re going to see why. See here are the preserved slabs of a balcony that used to exist uh before fortifications were uh changed to make it better for defense. There’s a shield on each side indicating the importance of defense. And each one of these is a male or in that case a female. and in this case female um important person in the city of Oonto and of course they’re surrounded you can see by a laurel reef. [Music] If you get invited or lucky to get invited to an historical lecture, this would be the room that you do it. It’s downstairs and what’s great about this is they can have lecture lectures all year long because this is two floors down and it is very cool and very refreshing as you would say about junior mints if you’re watching Seinfeld. It’s very refreshing right there. If Angie can close up that is a what we call in these days a Tyrion Lannister secret door. If you are trying to invade the castle and you are a former person who lived here and you know the entrance when we talk about how important defense is, you know they felt it. Look at the thickness. This is how you can appreciate the thickness of the walls. I wouldn’t say that they’re cannon proof, but they are certainly cannon resistant because the cannon can do damage and uh still not break down the walls and allow for entry. If you look over here, this this was built later because they realized the weakness was an approach from that area. So that is called the crazy building by Italians because if you look at the top of it, they built the castle and then they built an outer wall around it and it’s a very unusual shape. But what it was designed for is when can and fire would damage that outer wall. That outer wall might come down, but then you have the main structure there. You can also see over here what let me get through here. It’s a Saturday, so we’re going to be seeing a lot of tourists today. But Angie’s favorite, you can see the moat. You see where the land was over there that we now have cars and and restaurants and stuff. Um, but you can see in between it was a very large moat. If you saw earlier those uh holes, those windows where the cannon could fit through, if anybody dared to try to traverse the moat to get in, then the cannon could pick them off from there. If you look over at this end up top, that is where the lookouts would be, so you could try to see the enemy uh coming. And that’s one of the oldest parts of the structures. And that must have been where they first saw the absolutely devastating Ottoman uh naval uh barrage coming at them. The those ships are a little bit more modern now. As you can see there in the port, a bunch of millionaires have have parked their boats there. But uh you can see the vast expanse of the sea and it just if you can imagine being the Greeks or the Romans or the Byzantine and when I say Bzantium that’s what you would think of as as Turkey today when you see because it’s such an important economic uh economic bastion. They would put all of their eggs in one basket to conquering this. So the overwhelming majority of their fleet would be used in an effort to conquer this because it was just so important economically until like I say Columbus discovered the Americas and then the the ability to trade goods. The amount of countries available to trade goods with expanded so rapidly that it became less important and and now you know a place where people can make YouTube videos. These metal bars are not part of the original construction, but this is an area that you can also do a cannon. And people lining up to figure out how to cross this mode. And what’s up? You ain’t going nowhere. Now, of course, it’s a lovely courtyard. Here’s another perspective of how thick those walls are. And you can see where they were added on to what once the other structures got on became less valuable. defensive positions. These holes which now have windows that have been added to it uh subsequent to that, but those were all all those holes were defensive areas to protect the castle gone. This would be the main entrance for historians to be able to be allowed up here to the prehistory part of it. If you’re wondering what prehistory was, that term really only came into vogue uh in 400 400 AD at the council of Nika when they decided to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. And that’s another thing another obviously time moving at that point when they decided that for every uh for every Christian there was about a thousand Zoroastrians there was about 10,000 Jews and there was about 15,000 polytheist prior to uh Constantine making this decision and one of the things that became problematic is that in the Old Testament uh in the Bible. If you back the dates from creation through Noah and all of the uh the figures in the Bible, you would come to the conclusion mathematically that uh that the earth was 6,000 years old. And that is obviously we know now with carbon dating and the discovery of dinosaur bones. That’s not true. But uh Italy and the Roman Empire knew that prior when they discovered cities like Mater. If you uh subscribe to our channel, hopefully you’ve already seen our Materia uh video, which were quite a bit older than 6,000 years ago. The belief is that the way that they came up with 6,000 years was because the only type of writing and evidence of any society was 5,000 years ago when many ruled Egypt. And I guess they figured, oh, let’s tack another thousand years onto that and we should be good. And turned out they weren’t good. So, um, you know, swinging a miss there, Constantine, but that’s okay. It’s prehistory. That’s a new way of reforming it to add some legitimacy to it. Echoes in this room. But coincidentally, the next room, um, if you look at these artifacts, they have actually been carbon dated to 14,000 years ago and only as recently as 8,000 years ago. So, uh, you know, my bad on that one. But, uh, yeah, much older, at least than 6,000. The other things at the castle is that the rooms that don’t necessarily have things you would want to see often have art exhibits. And there’s one going on while we’re here now. It is by Gino D. Rinaldi. And so there’s several works of his. There is another room where there is a historical artifact, but I believe there are going to be more paintings of his in here. Actually, although these are painted on, they are what would you consider this material? Like a muslin. Yeah, that we’ve got like a material here and it’s been uh serrated at points and colored at points. It’s a really it’s a really interesting thing particularly that end right there which looks like uh Otanto’s castle. There are a lot of there are a lot of doorways in this region of Italy that have strung beads vertically hung to the entrance. And this looks like a doorway in a restaurant in this region with the beads in front. I have a question for you guys, my subscribers. Have you ever sat down on a bench that was 8,000 years old? I don’t know whether that’s on your bucket list, but if it is, for only €3, you can get in here and have a little seat. There’s a couple of them. One over there by the AC if you’re really hot. Yes. Dogs of the log. Castles are very, very cool. [Music] Get to the crazy building, you just leave the castle. not building but you know defensive fortification. Just leave the castle and you cross this bridge and it will take you over you and a billion tourists actually because you wonder why this is more crowded. Not that it’s more historically significant cuz it’s not as old but just this part is free. Actually this thing is quite a feat of defensive architecture. Dogs in the log. [Music] This port wasn’t here, of course, but not like this at least. [Music] Now we got a lot of kids playing on the beach, having fun. for lunch. If you want a restaurant with a view, they have plenty here. That is the Santa Mar restaurant. And there’s the view. And this is the Trattoriia Pizzeria. There’s another half dozen of these. It’s kind of reminiscent of one of our favorite cities, Gallipoli, if you’ve seen that video. And to put some perspective on it, the beach is over there. [Music] [Music] both with the same sea views. And then you come around here, more castle action, a statue celebrating the uniting of Italy, and then of course more awesome castle action. I just love it here. I hope I hope this translates. If you’re looking at the Mother Italy statue where you’ve just come from where you’re facing this castle and you want to go to the beach, there’s three more beaches in addition to the ones that I showed you over here. You can see that one and then that one. The most popular appears to be that one down there, which has uh a bunch of beach umbrellas. That might be the reason why, but unlike a uh some Italian towns, this uh this these beaches are free. And then to the right of the umbrellas, there’s even more. So, I I love Gallipoli, but I would really only say there are a few two or three beaches that I would say are comparable to what you see here that you can get to for free. And uh so I’d say that Otanto wins on the beachfront. Plus the water in Otronto is much more shallow. It’s actually reminds me of Dream Sands the resort in Cancun, Mexico. You can see how far those people are out from the beach and the water is still not even reaching the waist of the people who are who are uh tall. This is the first of those beaches. It’s not as crowded probably because of the um there’s not quite the amount of sun uh umbrellas, beach umbrellas for people to have shade on. And today is very sunny, which is why I’m wearing my GG poker hat. Sign up now for a bonus and qualify for the main event or the main event Europe or the main event in Paradise in at Atlantis in the Bahamas. We are now at the main prominade. Even though it’s Siesta, this is the main tourist hub. So there are restaurants that are open along the prominade here. Just a wonderful breeze. And uh you know every restaurant, probably two restaurants for every shop, but uh nice cool breeze, old dudes on motorcycles, and uh imported palm trees. This beach is not popular. I think it’s probably because there’s so many seashells and racks. Racks. That doesn’t make sense. seashells and rocks. Uh, you know, yet again, another restaurant. But you see the difference in the density of the crowds over there. So, we’re going to head over there and see what’s up. Okay, now we’re at the main beach with all the umbrellas. This is interesting. Not everybody is even sunbathing on the sand. They have people that are sunbathing on the steps. I think I’d be going for one of those uh umbrellas if it was me. Now that we’re closer, I see that the umbrellas, it’s not a first come, first serve. They are uh for rent. You have to rent the umbrellas. We’ll check on the price. Uh but some people are just throwing down a towel, and I guess that’s okay, too. The beach with the umbrellas is called Spia de Gradoni. Gradono Gradino. And the one over there is that’s the Spia de Alanto. This shot is interesting because it shows how far out these people can walk and still be at waist deep water. Look at that. That’s one of the things that really makes this popular I think. And this is Pia deanti [Music] tip about Italy. The gentleman with the backpack and the bracelets do not engage. These people now are having a lengthy conversation with him. Uh, they will try to be friendly. They will always say, “Did where are you from?” And then no matter where you’re from, they have an answer. Oh, I’m from Chicago. Oh, Michael Jordan, he’s the best. Whatever, they have an answer, no matter where you’re from. And then they guilt trip you into buying one of these crappy bracelets that you’re not even going to take on the plane with you. Uh, in downtown Bari, they’re the worst. We were in a restaurant once and there was two of them in the restaurant selling at the exact same time. But as you can see, these people made the mistake of having a discussion with him. And now she doesn’t realize it yet, but she has bought a bracelet because she’s putting it on. She’s trying it. And once it’s on the wrist, he’s going to tell her that’s €5. And then she’s going to say she doesn’t want it. He’s going to say, “Will you put it on your wrist? I can’t take it back.” Come on, guys. Do not fall for what this lady is falling for right now. Our plan today was to go into this this vaunted historical church and look at the collection of relics because this church has the largest collection of relics of saints of any other church in the entire world. Not in Rome, not in Florence, not in Venice, here in Oronto. And we are going to tell you that story. But we have an even better treat. I love it when we are in Italy and there is a wedding because nobody does weddings like the Italians. Woo! [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Yay. Oh man, I love it. [Music] I mean, I’m a tough guy. I don’t care about limiting stuff like this. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So, why would they choose to get married at this church? If you are a subscriber to our channel, you’ve seen a lot of churches that are certainly more ornate than this. Uh well it’s certainly the story of why there are more relics of martyrs and saints actually people who are both martyrs and saints in this church than any other place in the world. When the Turks invade, the Ottoman Empire invaded in 1480, 830 uh Christians hid out in this church, barricaded themselves, hoping that it would lead to their safety. But as we know now, history overtook and the Ottomans were able to conquer uh this area and they were able to break into the church and they gave the churchgoers a ultimatum that you can convert to Islam or you can be executed. And of the 830 Christians in there, 813 of them chose death. So they were all canonized as saints and their skeletons are kept in this church as holy relics and will be forever. And this is that cathedral that they got married in. Oh man, [Music] absolutely beautiful. Even the floor is gorgeous. Look at the mosaic on the floor here. Wow. We are headed down into the crypt. [Music] Lord. [Music] This is one of the more neat octagonal baptismal structures. [Music] The offereta room where you give offerings to the church is particularly stunning. [Music] And this these are the skeletons of the 813 martyrs who are all now currently sainted. It’s a little macob. [Music] But if you believe in these things, every skeleton in here represents a person that took the express route to heaven. They say that everything in Italy is more beautiful than any other place in the world. Not just churches, not just people, not just food, but even hear. This is not a very long SUV. It’s the most beautiful hearse I’ve ever seen. Right next to church is the Dioisano deanto Museo which is a this. It’s a museum. It’s got a lot of sculptures of Dionasis and Poseidon and all that kind of stuff. Piece of advice I can give about visiting Italy and my subscribers are probably sick of hearing it but I I can’t go without saying it is this is the castle Argonese. If you are near a tourist attraction and you see a restaurant, generally you should not go to that restaurant. This is the Il CCastello Pizzeria Restaurante. But this was recommended to us and we were very excited about it until we got to here. But we’re going to go ahead and try it anyways because we have not rolled the dice on this particular uh bro broken this particular rule in many years. So, we’re going to do it and we will let you know. We decided you guys were sick of seeing pasta videos. Maybe you’re not. Let us know in the comments. So, uh we both got Angie got a proto a she doesn’t like when I say fungi, but that is how you say mushroom in Italian. And I got salicha. And we were really hot, so we got water and we’ve been pounding it. Okay. My review of Ilcastello. Um, I’m sorry to say the rule still holds. If you are at any landmark, any tourist landmark, and you turn around and see a restaurant, don’t go to that restaurant. The food was not terrible, but it was it was uh for the price, it should have been really, really good, and it just wasn’t. Um, the pizza was just okay. It was a little bit skimpy. I did enjoy the sauce. Uh, Angie ordered uh Coca-Cola Zero and that’s what it was called in the menu and it was Pepsi Zero, but she still enjoyed it. Um, but just a heads up if you’re loyal to Coke. Um, one last thing I would say is that I was a former safe food service manager trainer and there was a very lovely, very nice woman who she wasn’t our waiter, but she did ask twice, Van, is everything okay? And uh you know I told her it was she cleaned the glass of Parmesan cheese, the little glass container of Parmesan cheese by blowing the excess Parmesan cheese off of it. That is uh that is absolutely unacceptable. And she was so sweet. Uh but let’s put this way. I did not order any parm on my pizza. So, we’re going to head off here to now that we’ve been refueled and get some more uh attractions for you guys to see in Toronto. And like any Italian town, unless it’s too crowded with tourists, one of the greatest pleasures is just walking through the streets. [Music] I think if I lived in Italy, I’d have to have a lemon tree in my yard. I think that would just be a must. And like every town in Italy, Oanto has a public park. This one’s a little unique because of its proximity to the sea, but it does have the usual trees, covers for shade, [Music] stuff for kids to play on, and most importantly, the benches for people to sit on and relax. You know what? Everybody seemed to be having such a good time just sitting down and feeling the breeze that Angie and I decided to do just that. Am I right, honey? Yep. Chain gang, thank you so much for sharing this journey with us. Next week’s video will be comparing taking public transportation versus renting a car when you’re in Italy. And then we are moving on to an amazing series of videos in the city of Bari. We’ll see you next Saturday on the four chains travel.

@TheFourChainsTravel brings you Otranto Italy 🇮🇹 Walking Tour and Travel Guide – Puglia’s Hidden Gem – Castles, Beaches, Pizza, Churches and More.
This Southern Italy town must get on your bucket list now, before the rest of the world finds out. History and Beauty meet the see in a must visit Italian town
Related: https://youtu.be/knQNakEfpww

OUR MUST HAVE ITEMS WHEN TRAVELING (*affiliate links):
Portable Chargers: https://amzn.to/3SvvhK0
Travel Adapter/Voltage Converter: https://amzn.to/3HswKjX
Best Reusable Insulated Travel Cup: https://amzn.to/3YPGlqS
Best Neck Pillow for Flying: https://amzn.to/4dozkU7
Awesome Travel Backpack: https://amzn.to/4kqmG9m
Super Helpful Packing Cubes: https://amzn.to/4dv7ZQ8
Clear TSA Travel Bags for Liquids: https://amzn.to/430A91H
Slightly Taller TSA Bags: https://amzn.to/4knFpSX
Dual Voltage Curling Iron for Travel: https://amzn.to/4kulXEp

OUR GEAR (*affiliate links):
DJI Pocket 3 Vlogging Camera: https://amzn.to/4mihDcz
Mini Sandisc Memory Card: https://amzn.to/432qojJ
Under Water Camera Bundle: https://amzn.to/3AiI9zm

CREDIT CARDS WE USE
💳Best Credit Card For Airport Lounge Access – Amex Platinum:
https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/platinum-card?ref=JAMESMkVRm&XL=MITNS
💳Best Credit Card For Groceries & Dining – Amex Gold:
https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/gold-card?ref=ANGELMQf19&xl=cp15
💳Best Overall Hotel Credit Card – IHG One Rewards Premier:
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/210u/WT7Z8DLAQZ
💳Best Credit Card For Vegas – Marriot Bonvoy:
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/252m/0MK68U9FI1
(Thanks for considering these cards because we can be rewarded if you apply with our link and are approved. Then YOU can earn bonus points and refer friends too! )

STAY IN TOUCH!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefourchains/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The4Chains
Contact Us: TheFourChains@gmail.com

Ways To Support Our Channel:
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thefourchains
BUY US A COFFEE: https://buymeacoffee.com/TheFourChains

WHO ARE THE FOUR CHAINS TRAVEL?
We are Jim & Angie and we’re living our best lives wherever we go by following four basic life balance principals that we refer to as The Four Chains. We invite you to join us on our adventures, learn from our tutorials, and be entertained by our antics. Thanks for watching, commenting, & subscribing!

*As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases. Disclosure: Some of the card links and products that appear above are from companies which we will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. We are not sponsored by any individual or company and our reviews always reflect our honest opinions and experiences. (The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available).
#otranto #otrantoitaly #pugliaitaly #pugliatravel #italiancoast #southernitaly #thefourchainstravel