PORTO SELVAGGIO kayak trip

Salento is certainly one of Italy’s most popular holiday destinations. Here you can find beautiful pristine beaches, bathed by the crystal clear sea of Puglia. One of the most famous and unmissable beaches during a trip to Salento, and probably one of the most beautiful in Italy, is Porto Selvaggio. It is a place to say the least magical and immersed in nature, which offers visitors a landscape that is among the most evocative of the entire Salento coast.

The natural park of Porto Selvaggio

Porto Selvaggio is located in Nardò, a municipality in the province of Lecce between Gallipoli and Porto Cesareo. The area, since 1980, is a natural park established by the Puglia Region which includes 432 hectares of coast, of which 268 of pinewood. The pine forest that surrounds the beach is in fact what makes the Porto Selvaggio reserve a unique and relaxing place: the pines were planted in the 1950s thanks to state funds. The center of the Natural Park is the small pebble and pebble beach that attracts many tourists every year. The sea is crystal clear and bordered by a low cliff on both sides. The particularity of this beach is also given by a current of cold fresh water that arrives directly in the bay. Today the Park consists of over 1000 hectares of land and is all to be discovered.

The beach of Porto Selvaggio

The bay of Porto Selvaggio, which gives its name to the entire park, is the most famous and popular, especially in summer. From the entrance, along the path in the pine forest for about 20 minutes you will reach the beach made of pebbles and rocks. The view is enchanting and the bay is perfect for sunbathing and bathing, while if you want to dive from the rocks the advice is to get away from the beach, where the water tends to be quite low.

The Green Cave

The Green cave is the most beautiful cave on the coast of Porto Selvaggio! Not always accessible because of the low entry which is impossible to enter in case of rough water, it is a stupendous cave! The light that filters through the underwater opening gives it the green color that distinguishes it. From the outside it is almost impossible to watch, but inside it is wide and allows more kayaks to enter and turn around to exit.

The S. Maria dell’Alto Tower

The S. Maria dell’Alto Tower is a coastal tower of Salento located in Santa Caterina di Nardò. Located about 60 m s.l.m., surrounded by a thick pine forest, it was built in the sixteenth century with defensive functions to make the coast of the Salento peninsula safer.