GUIDED TOURS ROCA VECCHIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK AND THE POESIA CAVE – DIVE AT SUNSET
TOUR DURATION: FULL DAY
GUIDED TOURS ROCA VECCHIA DESCRIPTION
Along the Adriatic coast, few kilometers north from the town of Otranto, there is the Roca Vecchia’s ancient settlement and the poesia cave, one of the most beautiful natural pools in the world. The legend says that a princess loved swimming here and that this place inspired plenty of poets. This enchanting rendez-vous with nature, shows an open-air elliptical cavity that naturally has been carved out from the sea all over the centuries and today attracts many visitors, especially during the spring and the summertime when you can try a courageous dive from a vertiginous height. On the inside, hundreds of overlapped symbols and inscriptions in Greek, Latin and Messapian, referring to the presence of the close village of Roca Vecchia; the oldest and most damaged evidences from the invasion of the sea, are concentrated on the lower band: these representations consists in hands and feet as well as anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or abstract figures also present in the Grotta dei Cervi in Porto Badisco not far from here. For those who are dreaming of a quiter bath, few kilometers south to the coast, we will find a natural rocky amphitheater with some monumental stacks, majestically rising in the middle of the Adriatic Sea: it will be an unforgettable experience diving here at sunset. The Roca Vecchia village has been inhabited since the second millennium b.C. (Bronze Age) until the late Middle Ages (mid-late-15th century); the area is placed on a peninsula-promontory bounded by two large nd beautiful marine inlets. But Roca was also an important urban centre in the Angevin period and following the assault of the Turks in 1480, Alfonso II of Aragon fortified it again, although in the second half of the 16th century, it was completely destroyed. Today this area is considered one of the most important sites for the history of the archaeology and urban city planning, a ravishing archaeological and environmental park.
