Comedians born in Taranto

Taranto looks out onto the Ionian Sea from southern Apulia, a major naval port built around two enclosed basins, the Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo, which is how it earned the nickname the city of two seas. A Spartan colony in antiquity, it later grew into a centre of heavy industry anchored by one of Europe's biggest steelworks.

Its old town on the island and the seafront beyond it now host cultural events that increasingly draw Italy's widening stand-up circuit, and the city is the birthplace of comedian Antonio Teocoli.