With the sun shining today we planned to just get out there and enjoy this beautiful city. What a difference it makes to both the appearance of a place and to the people.
As predicted the parks were full of families with children being indulged and young couples enjoying time together. The oldies were just sitting in the sun and chatting.
Two versions of the horse ride so popular with children world-wide. One all glossy and colourful and the other home-made from recycled tyres and other materials. It was powered by a lady pedalling a bicycle.
This sign refers to the special process of wetting the frisa bread to make frisa, the popular food mentioned a couple of days ago. Which leads me to some more local Salento foods we have tried today.
Every country and region seems to have its version of tomato and cheese in a bread covering. For us Aussies I guess it is the tomato and cheese toastie. Yesterday we shared a calzone, southern Italian style. Further north a calzone is a pizza folded in half but here it has a thicker dough and is deep fried.
Mid morning today we had rustico classico - two puff pastry circles filled with tomato, mozzarella cheese and bechamel sauce, baked and served hot.
On the right in this shop window is pizzo (yes, the language is different in the south). Into a yeast based bread is mixed tomato, olives, onion and oregano. We are yet to try this.
About 3 pm we sat down for lunch and enjoyed two more versions of tomato and cheese street food. The first photo is Kel's 'pinsa' - onto a warm pizza base was added stracciatella cheese, bresaola, hard cheese shavings, rocket and a drizzle of balsamic.
My bruschetta had a tomato base, prosciutto, cheese shavings and walnuts served with arugula (rocket).
With no fountains, wells, statues, eateries or any other distractions, the piazzas of Lecce really speak for themselves. The Piazza del Duomo is a fabulous space, in the real meaning of the word. As you enter the narrow space, passing by a guard of saints, your head spins and your eyes don't know where to look first. Straight ahead is the duomo, or cathedral, with the 71 m tall bell tower to the left. To the right is the episcopio and further right the ancient seminary. Each building is spectacular in its own right, but a square full of such architecture and art is simply amazing.
The earliest part of the cathedral dates from 1144 and the church as it is today is 17th century and is a Zimbalo masterpiece. The surrounding palaces are equally
impressive historically and architecturally.
A few more moments of delight under the blue sky and sunshine. We found ourselves back at Porta Napoli so tried to capture the brilliance of the oleanders (failed), the view from our lunch spot Palazzo Celestini and finally the Basilica of Santa Croce.
A wedding was about to happen, the florists were putting the final touches to the huge floral arrangements on the pillars and steps outside the church and the beautifully dressed guests were gathering. The ladies mostly in long dresses, the men all in suits. Still seems odd to see men in suits and ties, polished shoes and no socks.
Lecce has a population of over 95,000 people but, as always, in the historic centre you don't feel that. There are quite a lot of tourists but mainly Italians. So far, so good with the cruise ship lot!
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