Taranto Castle

One of the first tourist things I did in Taranto was visit the Castle.  Italy is kind of like Japan in that most of the cities have an old castle.  Looking at the map below, I moved to a hotel in the upper left corner and the castle is the orange area in the lower right.

 You can walk around the outer permitter of the island or take the maze through the center.  I picked the maze, this area is called old-town.

 The castle is not huge but it is old and imposing.

 Under the castle are a bunch of paths, some even lead under the river between the old town island and the mainland.  But that path is closed to the public, I think it's flooded.

 The tour guide was funny.  He is the person looking forward with the tie and blue shirt.  He would talk about something in Italian for like 5 minutes.  Then he would pause for a few second and look at us (us = the few foreign people) and say something like "to my English speaking friends, this is an old door way.  Dates back to the 12th century and was re-modled in the 1600's.  Okay, moving on..."

 Standard issue cannon, looking out over the Mediterranean.

 After the tour was over I ventured back into the maze of old-town.

 In the center of old town is the Cattedrale of Saint Cataldo.  It's a cool old church.