Capo d'Otranto

Italy's easternmost point, with a Bourbon-era lighthouse and clifftop views

Cape Palascìa, the easternmost tip of mainland Italy, sits about 6 kilometres south of Otranto. From the cliffs you look directly across the Strait of Otranto — only 72 kilometres to Albania — and the colour of the water shifts in bands from turquoise to deep blue.

The Punta Palascia lighthouse, built in 1869 under the post-unification government, has been restored as a small environmental museum. The whole cape is part of the Costa Otranto-Santa Maria di Leuca natural park, and a coastal path links it back along the cliffs to the Baia delle Orte and eventually Otranto itself — a fine walk of two to three hours.

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On a clear morning the Albanian coast — the Karaburun peninsula and the Acroceraunian mountains — is visible across just 72 kilometres of sea. This is the narrowest point of the Adriatic, and during the Cold War it was where Italian radar quietly tracked everything moving in and out of communist Albania.