Brindisi in a Nutshell

A mini-guide to hotels, restaurants, ferries, and useful information in Brindisi, Italy

HOTELS In Brindisi

$ Hotel Europa. Signora Natalina is as welcoming to strangers at her spotless little 34-room hotel on the central piazza a few blocks from the station as to patrons who've been returning since their World War II days. Beaming wreathes of smiles around an ever-present cigarette, she'll chat your ear off while she struggles to check you in on the computer her English-speaking son insisted a modern hotel needs. At these prices you'll find the usual functional furniture and lazy-springed beds in the mostly huge rooms, but the 14 rooms with bath have rather nicer, newer built-in units and fabric-covered chairs that match the bedspreads. Strict budgeteers needn't worry-there is an ample number of, albeit cramped, hall baths if you opt for the older, bathless rooms. The hotel is heated in winter, and five accommodations have A/C (slowly being installed in at least all the rooms on the top floor).
Piazza Cairoli 5. +39-0831-528-546

$$ Hotel Regina. They certainly try hard to please the customer at this 30-year-old hotel one block off Piazza Cairoli, but the modular furnishings have seen better days. Still, accommodations and baths are consistently large and immaculately clean, and the beds are considerably firmer than those at the Europa. There's no air-conditioning, but the room fans help beat the heat in summer, and things are a bit quieter here off the main piazza. The manager is one of the most helpful men in town.
Via Cavour 5. +39-0831-562-001, www.brindisiweb.com/regina

Restaurants in Brindisi

Brindisi actually has three or four very good restaurants... that will cost you upwards of €50 a head.

For picnic supplies (or to stock up on snacks for the ferry ride), there are some good little alimentari along Via C. Colombo, one of your first lefts upon leaving the train station.

The cheapest—and perhaps the best—of the lot is Pantagruele, reviewed below, but some may prefer the more refined atmosphere (and rarified prices) of garden-like La Lanterna (0831-564-026), a fish restaurant in an old palazzo at Via G. Tarantini 14 near the Piazza del Duomo (closed Sun); or Marco Aurelio (0831-521-773), another seafood specialist off Piazza Ciaroli at Via Masaniello 8.

Otherwise, the best advice I can give is to avoid the glut of miserable trattorie and disgusting pizza joints that infest the streets leading to and surrounding the port.

$ La Pergola. This is one of the only decent spots lining the road to the port. There are some tables set outside and--bless them on a hot summer afternoon--air-conditioning inside, where a TV locked into the day's sporting event keeps local patrons (and sometimes your waiter) enthralled. The food's not much to write home about, but it's ample and it's good. At least the pizza doesn't suffer the same tasteless fate as at neighboring dives, and the primi list is full of such reliable standbys as orecchiette brindisiana (Apulia's famed "little ears" yarmulke-shaped pastas served under tomato, hard ricotta, and basil), penne all'arrabbiata (quill pasta in a spicy tomato sauce), and spaghetti alle cozze (with mussels). For seafood stick to the daily fresh fish grilled. Otherwise it's a grigliata mista (mixed meat grill), polpette e involtini (meatballs and stuffed veal), or petto di pollo arrosto (roast chicken breast).
Via Pergola 3 (at Corso Garibaldi). +39-0831-222-207. Closed Tues.

$$ Pantagruele. The best of Brindisi's pricier restaurants--happily still at the low end of moderate—is hidden in the honeycomb of the port area's back streets. The simple whitewashed rooms of wide-spaced tables enjoy a clientele of local cognoscenti and visiting foodies that fills them with intellectual chatter while Armando glides amidst the tables, taking orders and suggesting wines. Ernesto is in charge of the kitchen, turning out intriguing riffs on Apulian faves, including trucioli con anelli di calamari (homemade pasta in a cream sauce with squid rings, mussels, basil, and avocado), strossapreti con porcini, spek, e crema (a hearty noodle dish with porcini mushrooms in a cream sauce with ham), or good old orecchiette al pomodoro (little pasta yarmulkas with fresh tomatoes, basil, and ricotta dura). If you're missing home, order their famous grilled Texas beefsteak for secondo, or go local with tagliata di seppia (cuttlefish fillets), adventurous with fileto di struzzo alla miscela di pepe vari (tender ostrich fillet in a sauce studded with peppercorns, sided with lightly fried potato slices), or traditional with the catch of the day. The excellent desserts are all made in house.
Via Salita di Ripalta 1-3 (near the port; turn left off Corso Garibaldi onto Via Amena, just past Adriatica's office). 0831-560-605. Closed Mon, Sun dinner (except Jul-Aug: closed Sat lunch, Sun), and Aug 7-31.

TOURIST INFO

Main office (+39-0831-562-126) Via C. Colombo 88, one block down and to the left from the train station, M-F 8:30am-1pm.

Information office (+39-0831-523-072) Viale Regina Margherita, at the port, M-F 7:30am-2pm.

For info on ferries to Greece, read this section.

Useful Websites

www.pugliaturismo.com (official site of Apulia region)
www.provincia.brindisi.it (official site of Brindisi province)
www.brindisiweb.com (good private site; everything from hotels and history to traditional recipes; Italian only)