Lecce (Light) and heavy Baroque

Time may well fly but on the other side of the scale there is so much to experience moment by moment that it continues to entertain and suprise.  What is interesting about Southern Italy is that it is relatively untouched by the hoards of tourists - so you get to see lots of things quietly.  Also we have been lucky in choosing this time of year - the weather is great but the crowds are diminishing.

We are staying in a Palazzo here in Leeche and it really is palace like.  From the crowded narrow street you would not dream what lies behind and above.

The street frontage is just that, when you go through the little green door in the arch you enter a big courtyard with lots of green creepers and space to park cars and bikes and still walk around.  The Palazzo Rollo has had the same people living in there for hundreds of years. Our bedroom is like an apartment, but off it is a whole range of rooms open to us full of beautiful persian rugs on marble floors, antique furniture and paintings. We have access to a library and a small dining room where breakfast is served. 

 These are shots of our lounge and bedroom.  They cant really capture the grandure of it all.  There are about 20 different suites in the palazzo with about 5 separate areas with their own lounges and breakfast rooms.  The roof is a total suprise with a huge garden with trees in pots and views to die for. The complex is so big it feels like Gormangahst. This place is not expensive but it is just the way it works.

Lecce is famous for its baroque architecture.  The local brown stone is easy to carve apparently and it has had such a long history that people have been carving themselves silly (in my opinion) its all a bit over the top and intense - every millimeter is carved to the enth degree which can get a bit mentally exhausting.  It does not have the same beautiful fluid quality of marble.  I can see its very skilled. 

I did see a bit of marble carving in a shop but it was too big to put in my case - its a 1920 carving of a woman on a chaise lounge

Yesterday we decided to take a trip over to the other coast to the Ionian Sea.  We went to a little settlement called Gallipoli - not the one in Turkey famous for the ANZACs but a ancient town built in the times of the Greeks.  We decided to take a train and when we got to the station I realised the "train" as in fact a rail car such as we had in NZ in the 1960s. As cute as a button and still in 50s colours.

We jogged along rails in this little train (at one point decoupling from half of it that went off in another direction).  The country side was something out of a spagheti western "The Good Bad and the Ugly" I expected to see Clint Eastwood gunslinging in every station we stopped at.

Gallipoli is translated from Greek to mean beautiful city and it is.  It looks like a Greek Island and was in fact originally an island defended by yet another castle.  At some time in the past they built a causeway to the island that has become so built up you do not realise you have left the old shore line.  We sat and had a lovely meal looking out to sea. (again I hear you say). With all the exercise we do not seem to be loosing any weight.

We caught the 5 .17 rail car home again to Leece which ran to its own timetable. We stopped at a Clint Eastwood station and crews from about 3 little rail cars converged and had a long intense conversation on the platform for about 20 minutes and then all got back in the drivers seat and we were off again. Did not know if it was a stop work or just a smoko break.

We got home and bought half a pizza and a bottle of wine and had a quite dinner in our apartment.

Today Gillie has been cooking with Sylvestro and I am invited for dinner. Gillie will update the blog with her gastronomic experiences next time up.  We have one more day in Lecce before heading to Florence for a few days on Sunday.

Ciao