Brindisi

Port and naval base on the Adriatic Sea, in Apulia, on the ‘heel’ of Italy, 100 km/62 mi southeast of Bari; population (district, 1996 est) 413,300. It is a ferry point for Greece. Industries include food-processing and the manufacture of petrochemicals. It is one of the oldest Mediterranean ports, at the end of the Appian Way from Rome.

Features Brindisi is situated on a small promontory, and has an inner and outer harbour, the outer being enclosed by a breakwater and several small islands. It has a cathedral (12th–18th centuries), several medieval churches, a castle, and a 19 m/62 ft-high marble column, said to mark the end of the Appian Way.

History The town was taken by the Romans from the Sallentini in 267 BC, and developed into the main naval station on the Adriatic Sea. It became the chief point of embarkation for Greece and Asia Minor. A journey to Brindisi is the subject of one of Horace's satires; his contemporary the poet Virgil died here in 19 BC. In the Middle Ages the port was used by the Crusaders, but then fell into decay. Its prosperity was restored by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and it is now an important port for the eastern Mediterranean. In September 1943, after the fall of Mussolini and the Allied landings in Italy, Marshal Badoglio set up a pro-Allied government here.

Brindisi

Province of southeast Italy in eastern Puglia region; capital Brindisi; area 1,839 sq km/710 sq mi; population (2000 est) 411,600.

brindisi

Drinking of someone's health, a drinking song, especially in opera, for example in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, Verdi's Macbeth, Traviata, and Otello, or Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana.