A safe port since pre-classical times, thanks to its geographical position, as a closed sea and therefore sheltered from Mediterranean currents, the Gulf of Taranto became one of the leading landings and certainly one of the most famous. It reached is apex during the epoch of Magna Graecia, especially between the eighth and second centuries B.C. In fact, during this period, it was one of the main strategic centres of Greek politics on the Italian peninsula.
The Mar Grande (Great Sea), encircled by the Cheradi Islands and by Capo San Vito and separated from the Mar Piccolo (Small Sea) by a cape that encloses it within a gulf, faces the man-made island that constitutes the original nucleus of the city, which is connected to the rest of the territory by the Bridge of Porta Napoli and the Ponte Girevole.The Mar Piccolo is considered an internal sea, divided into two inlets virtually separated by the Ponte Punta Penna Pizzone. Boats can dock in the Porto Mercantile (Commercial Port) or in one of the private landings in the Mar Grande.