Lecce, located in the heel of Italy the
Arrived Thursday August 18 and left Wed August 24
We left our mountain top spa retreat of Aqua Petra in Telesia Terme around 11:00 knowing it was about a four hour drive to Lecce. The landscape became very dry as we entered the Puglia area. We saw many grape vines with huge white covers over them, these are there to keep the grapes from either ripening too fast or drying out in the hot, intense sun. We also entered the olive tree “breadbasket” of Italy. Miles after miles of olive trees apparently all owned by the same company. Thegroves had what looked like housing huts about every 15 miles. It was honestly a pretty boring drive. Unfortunately, just like Sicily, there are a lot of prickly pear cactus, they need to watch-out or they will take over. It was out of control in some areas, but they’re ahead of the curve in others because they have also planted oleander, a native plant, along the road and that has taken over instead. It’s much prettier to look at and I think much easier to control. It looked like some of the prickly pear had engulfed some old olive trees. We caught our first glimpse of the Adriatic about two hours into the drive. Traffic was traveling at a nice clip and we made great time. The drivers were also fine until we hit Lecce. That’s when all of the tales you hear about crazy Italian drivers become reality. We were extremely fortunate because it looked like we just missed a whale of a rain storm which would have made the adventure even more challenging. We could smell the rain as we were driving in and it smelled very different than at home, very sweet and smelled like fresh grass. Everything was great until once again the GPS messed up. It’s too long to go into, but we could have been at the apt two hours sooner than originally planned. Fortunately, at the last minute we asked our host, “Steve”, if he could pick us up at the Avis Rental office instead of meeting us at a parking lot where Cham would have taken the car back the following day. After we got into City Center we knew for sure how fortunate we were that Steve met us. We’re calling our host Steve because he looks just like Cham’s cousin, Steve Sachtjen in Wisconsin. Totally astounding. Lecce Steve is a very nice guy just like cousin Steve Sachtjen.
We were a little surprised when we first came into Lecce. We knew we were in a poorer region of Italy, but had also heard that we were in the Florence of the South. So far, we were a little dubious. Steve drove us to a typical double wooden doorsbuilding, we went up a flight of marble stairs and entered our best Airbnbapartment thus far. He does a five-night minimum booking. The apartment was huge with a fantastic kitchen (his family owns a kitchen goods store), an air conditioner and a small terrace. Now, European air conditioning is an oxymoron because they still like their open windows, but it was something. He has stocked our refrigerator was all kinds of goodies including milk, juice, water, some beers, a bottle of local rose wine which turned-out to be very good. He showed us a map with our location and told us to go out and take a right, right, left and we’d be at a square. It was like entering the Emerald City. We had no idea when we took that left, we’d be in a massive square with one square after another. They were also constructing a huge white lattice ornamental tour with hundreds of red, green and white lights. All of this is happening in the plaza where some of the Roman amphitheater is exposed, the tour office and the best seats for street performers in the evening. Lecce does very much follow the closing at 2:00 and reopening at 5:00 schedule that Spain follows. Everyone walks the plazas in the evening and they eat around 9:00. After several menu investigations, we found a great restaurant where Cham enjoyed grilled octopus. It was very difficult to sleep that night because it was really hot, the a.c. was quite inefficient and we couldn’t keep the windows open because of the noise outside. I asked Steve for a fan the next day and he also told me to turn on the a.c. in the other room and open the door. Hehad failed to mention that one when he showed us the apartment. After that the apartment was much more comfortable and he also brought a fan.
We did a petit tourist train tour the next morning and it was fascinating. I think I know my way around the city, but maps are useless. It’s a series of haphazard roads which change names on a whim and they neglect to change that on a map. There are also a lot of dead ends. I tried using map quest, but that was totally worthless so we just started going more by landmarks.
Lecce is a very interesting city. It was originally a Greek settlement and then taken over by the Romans. They too have the wolf involved in their folklore. They have also been under the rule of Venice, Normandy, and Spain. Their architecture was a combination of Spanish, French Baroque and Palm Beach all mixed up into one. There is a beautiful Baroque church on every block, they have their own distinctive architectural style called Lecce Baroque. The interiors usually don’t have a lot of stained glass because the gold gilded cravings are magnificent. PapierMache is an art here. Small artisan shops created beautiful crèches. One of the churches had amazing life size papier Mache figures. Their faces were extremely expressive. They were really quite beautiful.
We had heard this was the area that the Italians go to vacation and that was absolutely correct. While we have heard reports of a declining population, it appeared 75 percent of the tourists had baby carriages. The appeal of the area is very apparent because of all the places we’ve been, it’s inexpensive, close to the beaches and large plazas where the children can run. It’s also very safe. Our massive front door didn’t have a lock on it and the door to the apt had a pretty flimsy lock. The apartment building itself was extremely old and built like a fortress.
Because we were located near a plaza, our street is where the 14-16 year old’schose to hang out. This was an issue the first night, but we noticed the second night they disappeared around 10:30 and that happened the remaining nights as well. I had to think back to the time when I was that age – not old enough to drive, but too old to want to be at the house; it’s really a perfect location because you have privacy, but because it’s a residential street, someone can always hear you. People started coming in the night before the festival so the city was packed. That night, the kids left at 10:00 but some migrated back. I heard someone clap their hands twice and they all dispersed. Can you imagine? You clap your hands at teenagers, they know exactly what they’re supposed to do and they do it? I was extremely impressed.
We’ve been grateful to spend this time in Italy. We’ve found the people very helpful, much quieter than Americans and especially infinitely patient. Perhaps it’s because they don’t really depend on directions so theirs is a more when we get there, we get there attitude. We talked with a couple from Australia last night and we all commented on the lack of direction and how it’s no big deal attitude. We had to laugh at ourselves because typically people of northern Europe and the British Isles want to know all the directional facts. Obviously, this is a huge generalization, but I think it’s pretty true. If the operator thinks about it, they’ll announce a train or bus stop, but in the more rural areas, it’s an afterthought. It’s definitely made us realize, hey, just go with it, not necessarily a bad thing.
All of these are obviously comments are obviously personal opinion, but we’ve also found that the prices can vary, always benefitting the consumer. If there is some kind of change involved or it’s an odd number, they just as soon knock it down until it’s even. Certainly makes the book keeping easier.
Tomorrow we head to the surrounding countryside and beaches!
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