Well, if I'm going to finish this travelogue before our next ski vacation I'd better get cracking. On the other hand, I know Goethe didn't publish his experiences travelling in Italy on the next day (seems like almost every little town in Northern Italy has a sign saying "Goethe slept here"). But I digress. What was going on back in Puglia?
On our first morning way in the south of Puglia we drove to Lecce after a simple breakfast (the usual croissant and cappuccino). I picked a location on the edge of the old town that was supposed to have ample parking, and my TomTom took us there reliably. It was another hot day, unfortunately the parking lot didn't have any shade. Oh well, at least it was cheap and gave the impression that no one would be breaking into cars there. Of course, we didn't leave anything in the car!
Lecce is worth a trip. A city of about 100,000 inhabitants, and the capital of the eponymous province. It's history goes back into pre-Roman times, and after being sacked by first the Ostrogoths, and later conquered by the Byzantines, Saracens, Lombards, Hungarians (what were they doing there?) and Slavs, reached a period of stability and increasing importance and wealth from the 11th century, after the Normans took over.
Starting around 1630 a number of Baroque monuments were built, the most notable being the Chiesa di Santa Croce, with an absolutely amazing Baroque facade. There's no spacious square around the church, so photographs don't give much of an impression. Still, here's a closeup of the facade:
We walked around for hours, admiring the many churches and cathedrals which must remain nameless here. We discovered a delicious local specialty, espresso poured over ice cubes with almond syrup. Just the thing on a hot day!
This shows another favorite of mine, one of the few combination wine and book shops I've ever seen - they even had tastings:
Check out many more photos of Lecce that I posted to Flickr. It finally got too hot for us, and we drove from there directly to the beach. I was delighted to see a cuttlefish while snorkeling - it looked like a small grey football, except it changed its color and shape with amazing speed, even to the finest details of vegetation and detritus on the sand. I also saw many specimens of what I believe to be nudibranchs. Alas, I don't have an underwater camera, so no photos.
Dinner that night was in the small seaside village of San Foca, at the (for us) decent hour of 7:30.
On our first morning way in the south of Puglia we drove to Lecce after a simple breakfast (the usual croissant and cappuccino). I picked a location on the edge of the old town that was supposed to have ample parking, and my TomTom took us there reliably. It was another hot day, unfortunately the parking lot didn't have any shade. Oh well, at least it was cheap and gave the impression that no one would be breaking into cars there. Of course, we didn't leave anything in the car!
Lecce is worth a trip. A city of about 100,000 inhabitants, and the capital of the eponymous province. It's history goes back into pre-Roman times, and after being sacked by first the Ostrogoths, and later conquered by the Byzantines, Saracens, Lombards, Hungarians (what were they doing there?) and Slavs, reached a period of stability and increasing importance and wealth from the 11th century, after the Normans took over.
Starting around 1630 a number of Baroque monuments were built, the most notable being the Chiesa di Santa Croce, with an absolutely amazing Baroque facade. There's no spacious square around the church, so photographs don't give much of an impression. Still, here's a closeup of the facade:
We walked around for hours, admiring the many churches and cathedrals which must remain nameless here. We discovered a delicious local specialty, espresso poured over ice cubes with almond syrup. Just the thing on a hot day!This shows another favorite of mine, one of the few combination wine and book shops I've ever seen - they even had tastings:
Check out many more photos of Lecce that I posted to Flickr. It finally got too hot for us, and we drove from there directly to the beach. I was delighted to see a cuttlefish while snorkeling - it looked like a small grey football, except it changed its color and shape with amazing speed, even to the finest details of vegetation and detritus on the sand. I also saw many specimens of what I believe to be nudibranchs. Alas, I don't have an underwater camera, so no photos.Dinner that night was in the small seaside village of San Foca, at the (for us) decent hour of 7:30.
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