Lecce - city of Baroque architecture

We woke up this morning having one of the best sleeps we have had in ages.  There are 8 motorhomes parked up on the sosta – 5 Italians, 2 Germans and just us Brits!  But it was so, so quiet: no dogs barking in the distance, no crickets screeching, no noisy locals shouting their heads off and no cars or scooters to be heard!

So, straight after breakfast we set off into Lecce on the scooter.  It was about 11kms into the old town, on virtually a straight road.  I was a bit apprehensive of what the city would hold, as before we had set off to come down to Lecce I had spent a whole day trying to convince Mel it was a ‘must see city’ known as the "Florence of the South" and didn’t want us (in particular Mel) to be disappointed.

We parked just inside one of the ancient stone archways to the city and was instantly greeted with lovely narrow cobbled streets, winding their way through umpteen churches and palaces.  And not a tourist guide in sight!

Porta Rudiae - one of four ancient gates around the old town

I have totally fallen in love with the Baroque architecture since coming to Italy and Lecce had it in bucket loads!  The Basilia di Santa Croce is the most ornate of all of Lecce’s churches and we wondered around for some time to look at the intricate work that took around 150 years to complete.

Piazza del Duomo and the enormous bell tower (70m)

Intricate detail on the outside of the Duomo

One of the many palaces 

There are only a couple of Roman remains to be found in the city, an amphitheatre and theatre.  The amphitheatre is said to date from the time of Hadrian and in its day used to seat 20,000 spectators.  Today it looks pretty sad, and is surrounded by ‘new builds’ to make up the square - Piazza Sant’Oronzo

Both the amphithetre and theatre had plastic chairs and staging laid out in them and presume are now used for concerts.

Amphitheatre

Theatre

Even the houses have lovely Baroque type designs over their doors.

As the sun soured to 38°C we took to some shade in the gardens, at the edge of the city.

This fountain was tempting us to jump in!

Me, poised on the bridge ready to jump in!

Lecce is over 2,000 years old.  We are not sure this tree is that old but it had some BIG roots. 

Pretty coloured pasta shapes in an artisan shop.

Lovely cobbled, winding streets in Lecce

What was a pleasant surprise, is that Lecce isn’t touristy at all and the restaurants offer reasonably priced food, unlike other big cities/towns we have been to in Italy.  Mel and I are suckers for the Italian ice cream (gelato), thick and creamy and there’s always about 25 varieties to choose from in their shops.  

So we made the most of what will probably be our last ones, as we only have 3 days left in Italy before setting sail for Greece from Bari.

Sally x