An Italian treasure that's NOT on the tourist trail: We discover the joys of Taranto - 'a wonderfully forgotten basement of Italy'

An Italian treasure that's NOT on the tourist trail: We discover the joys of Taranto - 'a wonderfully forgotten basement of Italy' Taranto is a coastal city in southern Italy - Sean Thomas pays it a visit 'It is like Venice without the cruise boats, like Naples with even more ghosts' READ MORE: Pilot reveals what it's like flying 'mile high club' plane over Vegas By Sean Thomas For The Mail On Sunday Published: 09:51, 1 July 2024 | Updated: 09:54, 1 July 2024 e-mail View comments The Rough Guide To Puglia says ‘tourists give Taranto a wide berth’. Lonely Planet, meanwhile, has it that the city is ‘very much not on the tourist trail’. And yet I’m hearing that Taranto is nothing like this.

Could it actually be that most mythical of things – a glorious, historic Italian city, right on the dazzling blue Med, almost untouched by global tourism? To be honest, first impressions aren’t great. I’ve picked up a hire car at Bari (which has direct flights from the UK) and driven 80 minutes across Puglia (the boot-heel of Italy ) – and am now surrounded by ugly steelworks and brawny naval bases. But then I pierce the industrial belt which defends Taranto like a moat and I gaze about its neo-classical boulevards – I’m astonished, gladdened and ready for a mango gelato by the sea.

And the rumours about a lack of tourists are completely right – I am the only non-Italian around. Spanning the ages: Sean Thomas travels to Taranto, pictured, a 'wonderfully forgotten basem.