City
Ydrunte
Otranto
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Ydrunte, today's Otranto, lay at the south-eastern tip of Italy, where the Roman writer Pliny placed the shortest crossing to Greece. The map marks it with a pair of towers, their outlines retraced in black, and a small dot hovers over the initial Y, perhaps a faded trace of the Greek breathing mark that began the older name. A pilgrim's route from Bordeaux landed here after sailing over from Aulona in Albania, and in the Gothic period the town was known for purple dyeworks fed by shellfish from its sea.