Italian Boot Peninsulas

Peninsula Week Post #6

ITALY is world famous for having a characteristic boot shape, and some of the credit goes to peninsulas around the southern part of the country! The peninsulas that help form Italy’s boot shape are Calabria, Gargano, and Salentina.

Calabria
Both a region and peninsula, this is the toe of the boot. Calabria is east of the large island Sicily (and the city of Messina on Sicily), the Aeolian Islands (Lipari Islands), and Tyrrhenian Sea. The peninsula is also east of Golfo di Taranto (Gulf of Taranto) and north and west of the Ionian Sea. Cities on the peninsula include Catanzaro, Melito de Porto Salvo, Palmi, Reggio di Calabria, and Taurianova.

Gargano
You can say that Italy has a spur on the right side of the boot! That spur is Gargano (also called Promontorio del Gargano), located southwest of the Adriatic Sea and north of Golfo di Manfredonia. The peninsula is mountainous and has lakes. The two most prominent lakes are Lago di Lesina and Lago di Varano, and communities on the peninsula include Manfredonia and Vieste.

Salentina Peninsula
Lastly, this peninsula forms the heel of the boot. It juts out into the water in a southeasterly direction. The peninsula is north of the Golfo di Taranto and Ionian Sea, while being south of the Adriatic Sea. The Strait of Otranto, separating Salentina from the country Albania, is east of the peninsula and forms the geographical ‘separation’ between Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Communities include Gallipoli, Lecce, and Taranto.

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