The life and activities of Otranto’s ports are intimately linked to its city and the historical events that have characterized it over the centuries. As this Salento city is essentially a tourist center, the port has also always been an important point for receiving visitor boats or the departure point for ferries and hulls.

Until 1999 there was a ferry service connecting parts of Greece and Albania.

Today, however, it is often the protagonist of real journeys of hope of neighboring populations who clandestinely cross the Adriatic and disembark here in search of a better life. Yesterday as today, then, this port of call represents a very relevant reality for the whole Salento, a link with the East and an important junction for trade, but also from a strategic and military point of view. In fact, the Naval League has been based here for almost forty years.

The port of Otranto takes the form of a small gulf in which boats of various types moor and is characterized a wide inlet defended to some extent by the three-armed San Nicola pier equipped with docks and numerous piers oriented to the shore. The port can accommodate up to 390 berths up to 20 m long of which only 10 berths are reserved for transit.

In addition to tourism, Otranto’s economy is based on fishing, so in the port there is a bustling comings and goings of fishing boats, paranze and boats in general that help recreate the typical atmosphere of places where man competes with nature for survival.

In terms of the commercial aspect, along with fishing, the port still plays a major role in important routes and exchanges involving mainly materials for industrial production such as cement, lime, and plastic tanks. Until 1994, there were also merchant ships carrying tobacco.

Finally, not to be underestimated is the purely characteristic and related aspect of the atmosphere that the ports manage to bestow on the entire population: from many prominent areas of the city, in fact, one has the opportunity to enjoy a stupendous view in which the illuminated port ideally represents man’s attempt to grasp the sea. A beautiful waterfront makes for an evocative sunset walk along the piers.

In 2006, this port was awarded five sails by Legambiente for the environmental quality of its protection of the environmental resources of their territory: quality of bathing water, separate collection of waste, management of water resources, establishment of pedestrian areas, protection of the historic center, etc. In short, everything that contributes to achieving sustainable development that increases quality tourism demand, based on the pursuit of a healthy vacation lived in harmony with the surrounding environment.

For almost a year, however, a letter of protest has been filed against regional authorities to reject the port redevelopment project.

According to the Landscape Superintendence of the Puglia region, the project would alter the coastal area and irreparably transform the perception and view from both land and sea, compromising the landscape. Moreover, views to and from the historic center would also be altered both during the day and at night when the port lighting would cover the entire historic center with its monuments, ramparts and historic harbor bay