Puglia towns: Lecce

 

Driving around the Puglia countryside was like this ...

... incredibly narrow roads with many holes, crumbling stone walls on the sides 

and moments of critical decision whenever another car appeared from the opposite direction ...

Plus me wanting to stop every couple of minutes to snap a picture of yet another extraordinary old, huge, gnarled olive tree ...

Sometimes the olive trees were at crazy angles, conspiring to force the stone walls into crumbling, as below. There were also gigantic bushes of rosemary and the last of the summer's sunflowers 

Despite these distractions we did get around to several towns.

Not the capital (Bari) or an important port (Brindisi), but one of Puglia's larger cities, Lecce was a surprise - a good one. 

The centre, radiating outwards from a central amphitheatre, is pedestrianised, closed to traffic, so it overflows with outdoor cafés and, on this hot Sunday morning, locals leisurely walking with their dogs and children

It's best known for its baroque buildings; there's a Cattedrale, a Duomo, and a bevy of basilicas and chiese - all made of the same warm golden stone mined here for centuries.

Clearly a well-run city, the streets are clean, historic buildings well preserved, and more modern buildings have a great aesthetic, blending seamlessly with the old.

Lecce Duomo

Air-conditioning proved hard to find, so we escaped the intense heat for a while to take a pew in the cool stone interior of the Basilica di Santa Croce where a mass was in progress.

Lunch on a piazza was so tempting, but outdoor cafés were crowded and there were more towns to explore ...

Lecce, Puglia, Italy, September 2016

Puglia trip