Which strait separates Italy’s Apulia region from Albania and links the Adriatic and Ionian seas?

The Strait of Otranto separates Italy’s Apulia region from Albania and links the Adriatic and Ionian seas.

The strait is named after Otranto, a port city on Italy’s southeastern coast. Its narrowest point is about 72 kilometres wide, measured between Cape Otranto in Italy and the Karaburun Peninsula in Albania.

The waterway forms the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea. Corfu and the other Ionian Islands lie nearby, but the strait itself is the open passage between the Italian and Balkan coasts.

The Strait of Otranto is sometimes confused with the Strait of Messina, which lies farther west between Sicily and mainland Italy. During the First World War, Allied forces created the Otranto Barrage across the strait to restrict Austro-Hungarian submarines.