Lecce, journey to Sorrento

LECCE Sunday August 21, Monday August 22, Tuesday August 23 and departure Wed August 24

Sunday, Aug 21 was a very slow day.  I spent most of the day catching up on past blogs and doing laundry.  Their washing machines aren’t very big and a normal cycle takes a very long time.  It was great to have a slow day.

Monday, Aug. 22 – This morning we decided to go to the old market and purchase several items for me to cook for dinner the next couple of nights.  We bought some chicken wrapped in bacon and then a beef patty that had spinach and cheese rolled inside.  I also purchased a couple of eggplant and two figs.  All of this cost 7 euros.  After Cham took the items back to the apt., we decided to go to the number one attraction in Lecce according to Trip Advisor.  A family owned a building for 50 years and rented the rooms to tenants.  There were always complaints of a bad sewer system. The owner had been a cook in a restaurant for years and decided to open one of his own, but he was determined to fix the pipe before he opened.  He and his sons started digging and found-out after the archeological authorities became involved that the building they owned had been a convent from the 1200 – 1600’s and the building was originally a Knight’s Templar home used from about 1000 to 1200.  Can you imagine finding this in your home?  Of course they got in the trouble with the authorities, who confiscated all of the significant objects ( abishop’s ring, plates, various other objects) that were uncovered in the renovation process because anything within 10 cm of ground belongs by the antiquary laws to the state and finished the project under the supervision of several archeological groups.  I think I’ve failed to mention that Lecce is built on a pretty big underground river.  The problem with the sewer was that there was a well in the floor with direct access to the river so it made the house very damp.  The pictures shown include an inscribed “rose,” a very interesting red painted symbol which was in the top of the watch tour and part of an inscribed Latin greeting which was found in the rumble.  The other half hasn’t been found.  I also thought it was interesting that they included bits of used pottery in their mortar.  It’s very colorful and practical.

I cooked the chicken with and broiled the eggplant for dinner that evening.  Afterwards, we did what so many families do and took a turn around the Plaza.  We watched several performers and then turned in for the night.  Another interesting day in Lecce.

Tuesday, August 23

We decided to find the local history museum which is supposed to be extremely interesting.  I don’t know what to say other than after three very frustrating hours of trying to find it, we gave up. We received several directions, all incorrect, and found ourselves in areas we knew were incorrect, but on the other hand also saw some areas within the old city after we felt like we had seen all there was to see. It started sprinkling so we ducked into an amazing restaurant for lunch.  It was a very nice restaurant which offered local Lecce cuisine.  They were very pleased when we ordered those items.  Some weren’t very good, but they do have an excellent almost riced potato they layer with an olive tapenade. That was outstanding.  Can’t wait to try and make it.  On our last night, we went back to the Plaza for our evening stroll.  As they were getting ready for the big festival the following night, lots of family had come in from out of town and many street performers had arrived.  We were very happy to run into our friends, Cosimo and Aetna from the beach trip, so it was nice to say hello and good bye to them again.

Cham and I had had an interesting discussion at dinner that night about immigration and, this is extremely simplified, what do you do when all these families want is a better life for themselves?  God always puts such interesting people in your path at the right time. A young Muslim, about 18, and his mother sat next to me on the wall in the plaza.  He was from Morocco and studying languages in Lecce.  He told me he hoped I knew how fortunate we were and how all the young people in Morocco want to move to the US.  I asked him if there were jobs there and he said, no, only if you know someone who knows someone.  “There is no future in my country.” Ahhh, a difficult problem to say the least. When we went home for the night, I wished him all the best and told his mother that she had a very nice son.  I pray he finds his way.

Thursday, August 24

This was a huge travel day for us as we are taking the train from Lecce to Sorrento. It involved two train transfers, one with a very short time frame, and we were both very anxious about it. Plus, we had tried to get the tickets in advance and had a hard time making the reservations so we decided we’d just get them at the station.  It doesn’t help when you pull the Italian rail station website up and the first sentence says something like the Naples train station has the highest incidence of pickpockets in Italy.  Great. We had already contacted our Airbnb host in Sorrento and Antonio had offered to pick us up at the train.  He mentioned, remember, Naples isn’t like the rest of Italy.  Keep your eyes open and watch for pickpockets. Another great warning.  Our wonderful host, Steve, drove us to the train station and on the way in his very bad English said, Naples isn’t like the rest of Italy.  You need to watch for . . .  and I filled in the blank for him.  Si, si, he nodded.  

Steve dropped us off, Cham went to purchase the tickets and came back saying the train was sold out and we were going to have to take the bus.  It was a 6 hour trip and we needed to wait 2 hours until we could catch the bus.  The other option was to rent a car and drive and Cham said those days were over, and I certainly couldn’t blame him.  So we caught a cab to the bus station and waited.  At least there was a nice breeze blowing while we were waiting.

It turns out the bus was a great experience.  We didn’t need to worry about the tight transfer, we each had two seats and we saw some amazing scenery.  The earthquake had happened the night before and while we didn’t go through the area, I imagine the terrain wasn’t too different. Very, very steep looks like limestone, bare mountains.  We went through a number of tunnels but also had to make a detour around a major part of the highway that was closed for renovation. Previous sections were hanging off the side and the current highway looked like it was suspended around the mountain.  My guess is that it was either unstable from earthquakes or the torrential rains that roll through there in the spring.  We also went through parts that you understood why the films were called spaghetti westerns.  At one of our two rest stops, the restaurant was selling Clint Eastwood memorophlia.    

We finally arrived in Naples, 15 minutes late, but the train to Sorrento runs every half an hour so we weren’t concerned.  

I’m sorry if I offend anyone by saying this, but Naples is truly one of the nastiest places I’ve ever been in my entire life.  It’s filthy, graffiti is on every square inch of building, and there are literally slam shacks like you see in pictures of India along the highway. It does house one of the finest archeological museums and cruise lines are starting to come in, but if I saw Naples on my cruise itinerary, I wouldn’t go. It is absolutely controlled by the Mafia and everyone knows it.  

Now we had to roll our luggage from the bus terminal to the train station.  It turned out to be easier than I originally thought even though someone kept asking me if I wanted a cab and I finally had to shout, No, Grazie!  We had to carry our luggage down a long staircase to get on the regional train, no signage, just had to ask people, bought the tickets and took another set of long steps down to the tracks.  The train came, and we started on the next section of our journey. Unfortunatelywe got off one station stop too early, called Antonio and he graciously tracked us down and took us to our amazing apartment in Sorrento.  Truly, thank God for being with us during the journey and now a brand new three days in beautiful Sorrento !