In Salento there are different types of roads. There are the narrow and tangled streets like the alleys of a historic center and there are those built step by step, immersed in nature and bordered by the sea, like the paths of the Porto Selvaggio Natural Park.
The Porto Selvaggio Natural Park
The Porto Selvaggio Natural Park is located just over 11 km from the city of Nardò, in southern Salento. It is a stretch of coast that overlooks the Ionian Sea, more or less halfway between Gallipoli and Porto Cesareo, enchanting for the succession of beaches, caves and cliffs, even overlooking the sea.
Sheltered from the sun, nature trails are pleasant to walk even when temperatures are muggy. The scent of pines, acacias and holm oaks is always accompanied by the humid persistence of the Mediterranean undergrowth. In the park there are also tables and benches ideal for resting and perhaps having a picnic stop, in fact it is not unusual to meet hikers or mountain bikers.
Porto Selvaggio, however, is not just nature and the sea. You cross lands full of history because there are places like the Grotta del Cavallo, famous for the remains that belonged to Homo Sapiens, or, like the sixteenth-century Torre dell’Alto and Torre Uluzzo, built to defend the territory from raids by sea.
The Bay of Porto Selvaggio
It is the bay that gives the park its name and is also the most popular, especially in the height of summer. The Porto Selvaggio Park is accessed via the pedestrian entrances and one of these is located in Villa Tafuro, about 1 km from Santa Caterina, towards Porto Cesareo. Whether you choose a car or public transport, on the last stretch of the road you have to continue on foot along a path that, after about twenty minutes, leads to the bay of Porto Selvaggio. Once out of the shadow of the path, the view opens at a glance on the small cove of gravel and pebbles, where the low cliff is reflected in the shallow and clear water. To the left of the beach is Torre dell’Alto, the silent guardian of the bay.
It is an ideal destination to discover in spring until early autumn. In this natural oasis, in addition to swimming, you can take walks along the cliff or enter the expanse of Aleppo pines that stretch towards the cliff, away from the chaos of summer from the chaos of summer and to live with the same emotion of the new discoveries.
