Vieste's limestone promontory has guarded the Gargano peninsula for three thousand years, its white cliffs rising seventy metres above water so clear that fishermen once navigated by the shadows of their hulls on the seabed. The town's seafaring tradition stretches back to the Phoenicians, who sheltered their galleys in the natural harbours carved into the rock by Adriatic storms. By the eleventh century, Vieste had become a fortified port under Norman rule, its trabucchi—wooden fishing machines cantilevered over the waves—supplying Mediterranean markets with anchovies and mullet. Today those same cliffs conceal more than two dozen sea caves, accessible only by boat, their interiors illuminated by shafts of sunlight refracted through submerged arches. A Vieste private boat tour reveals a coastline shaped by karst geology: the Gargano massif is a solitary block of Mesozoic limestone, older than the Apennines that curve west across the Italian peninsula. Tectonic uplift and millennia of wave action have sculpted grottoes with names like Smeralda, Contrabbandieri, and Campana Grande, some large enough to navigate under sail. The traditional gozzo boat—a wooden craft with a rounded prow and shallow draft—remains the vessel of choice for navigating these waters, its design unchanged since Saracen raids forced fishermen to seek refuge in hidden coves. Between May and September, when the scirocco winds subside, the southern coastline between Vieste and Mattinata becomes a succession of pale sand beaches framed by umbrella pines, each named for the colour of its water: Vignanotica, Pugnochiuso, Baia delle Zagare. The Gargano Coast was declared a national park in 1991, protecting ninety-six miles of shoreline from development. Monk seals were sighted here until the 1970s; today the caves shelter colonies of Scopoli's shearwater, a seabird that nests only in the central Mediterranean. The town's economy, once anchored by fishing and olive oil, now depends on seasonal visitors who arrive by ferry from the Tremiti Islands or drive the coastal road from Peschici. August crowds fill the marina, but shoulder months offer calmer seas and the chance to swim in coves where the only other arrivals are the occasional yacht from Bari.