Bari to Lecce

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We left Bari fairly early in the morning. Rather than getting the shuttle bus, we walked to the park and ride to the car. The mornings are lovely - not too hot, but the afternoons get up to the 30s, and are unbearable to walk around with all the concrete. We parked the car not far from our apartment, loaded it up and went on our way. We were way too early for check in at Lecce, so we went off the motorway and headed to the beach at Pilar. It was beautiful. We sunbathed and swam for a couple of hours.  Bliss after all our walking!!!

We arrived in Lecce about two hours before check in, but rang Valentina to say we had arrived. She met us half an hour later anyway and walked us to the apartment, as the old town is a bit easy to get lost in. We did get lost a couple of times too anyway! Our apartment was 1006 years old and the roof was arched in the stones typical for that era. The rest of the apartment was modernised though (thank goodness!). Valentina took us for a walk to orientate us, and also gave us lots of recommendations for the next day as we planned to explore the regions beaches.

Lecce itself is quite different to Bari. Bari seemed to be a working town in comparison. Lecce was settled by the Noble, mostly from Geneva, and they were wealthy and able to employ artisans, and architects. It showed in the buildings and even the wider avenues...

 Like all Italian towns - it had it's main Cathedral, or Duomo. In fact Lecce had 22 churches.  We managed to see a few of them but both Nikki and I are feeling very 'churched' out!  Very!

The main drag...

The Cathedral... (or Duomo)..

The Cathedral Square...

This was a school - but I loved the archways and marble floors...

We found the old Roman Amphitheatre... Just happened to be in the middle of a square....

There aren't too many photos after this as Nikki and I stumbled across.... SHOPS! We then went shopping. Despite having no luggage room, we both bought a top, and Nikki bought a leather handbag and wallet. I looked on with envy, the 5th deadly sin!  We then went looking for a particular wine shop that was meant to stock this amazing wine. We walked for a couple of hours but didn't find it. Went back to the apartment empty handed. Got dressed up and went out for dinner, and the wine we wanted was on the menu so ordered a bottle anyway! And yes - it was divine. Following are some scenes around Lecce that I took on our quest of wine!

So Lecce is once again, totally different to the other towns we've visited. It seems that each one has it's own character, in terms of architecture and layout and wealth. What binds them all is the copious amount of churches, and the castles.

I'm enjoying Southern Italy and fully recommend people to visit Puglia.