Lecce, Puglia, Italy

 

Sunday, February 6, 2022

Lecce was once described as “the Florence of the South,” and its lovely sand-colored buildings and an abundance of baroque architecture may deserve such a sobriquet. Like many other old European towns, the cobblestone streets are narrow with houses built contiguously to one another.  This photo was taken at dusk while a light rain was falling and no one but me appeared to be out and about.  

Because this is Italy, the Romans were here centuries ago, but evidence of them was largely erased, only to be uncovered around 1900 when a new bank building was constructed.  The remains of both an amphitheater and a theater have been partially unearthed and now stand between the more modern structures of the town.

If you look at a map of Italy, you will see that it is turned somewhat on its side, so that the heel of its boot shape points eastward toward Albania.  There are only seventy kilometers of the Adriatic Sea between Puglia and the Albanian mountains.  As a result, the Salento, or southern portion of Puglia, was quite strategic in defending the Holy Roman Empire from incursions by the Ottoman Turks and Moors of North Africa. 

After the Turks were defeated in a famous naval battle in 1571, Lecce became a major player in Mediterranean trade.  Thanks to this defeat, the symbol for the Province of Lecce is a fierce dolphin with a crescent moon (the symbol of Turkey) in its mouth.  (A she-wolf under an olive tree--below--is the symbol for the city of Lecce.)  In the façade detail above, you can see two horses and three Turks holding the weight of the balcony above them.  Note their turbans and large mustaches.

Rich traders and merchants descended on Lecce from Venice, Genoa, Greece, and other principalities of the time.  They tore down existing structures in order to build their own palaces and replaced the classical churches with more elaborate and richer baroque ones around 1600.  The result is an old town with many beautiful buildings constructed from the area’s sandstone and ornately decorated.

According to our guide, Emanuela, daughter of a local archeology professor, southern Puglia is very flat and lies between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.  The local sandstone is very soft and is easily cut and carved, making it perfect for the excessive detail of the baroque period (see the altar carving below).  

As we walked around the town, Emanuela pointed out example after example of beautifully-detailed carvings and of the nature of sandstone itself. In the photo below, you can see the eroded sandstone blocks after 500 years in the elements and the smooth new blocks inserted where repairs were needed.

Our tour group has been congenial thus far.  We are five women between the ages of 60 and 82, all traveling as singles.  All of us are retired.  All of us have traveled previously.  While we are a bit nervous about Covid, we are all vaccinated and boosted and were itching to get back to travel.  All of us had professional careers—psychology, printing, computer technology, and retail sales—and are interested in continuing to learn, to experience, to grow. 

Tonight we enjoyed learning to make focaccia and pasta together as we drank local wine and talked about cooking.  And then we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labors and more wine.  We look forward to more such experiences as we travel together in Puglia.  Cheers!