At some point, we had to declare ourselves done with Matera (for now) and move on, which was unfortunate since we hadn't really had a chance to explore any of Basilicata beyond Matera itself. (Ruing the sickness, yes.) Matera is apparently the only Italian regional capital not served by mainline FS Italian trains, which makes it a bit difficult to get anywhere.
Our next stop was to be Lecce, down a little ways into the Salentine peninsula (that's the heel). This meant bus to Metaponto, train to Táranto, train to Brindisi, train to Lecce. About five hours of travel - not too bad. We brought some seriously delicious stuffed breads from a panificio run by the Fratelli di Palo (the di Palo brothers) in Matera.
Very hearty, these breads.
We got into Lecce just before dark and checked in to our hotel - luckily, it was mere steps from the train station, meaning we didn't have to carry our increasingly heavy bags very far. (those kilos of salt and flour and bottles of wine and after-dinner liqueurs were adding up fast.) Then we stepped out to find us some Leccese baroque!
No, we hadn't seen enough baroque on this trip. Plus, Lecce has a style of baroque all its own - Leccese stone is uniquely suited to crazy carving, since it's soft right after being quarried and hardens later.
Our first stop, after paying way too much for a small jar of local ricotta forte (strong, aged ricotta... and it is STRONG) was at the Duomo.
A pretty building, though not insanely over-the-top like we were expecting. Certainly more flowery than the baroque we'd seen in southeastern Sicily, though.
We went inside, but it was much too dim to see anything clearly, so we backed out for more wandering through the streets.
Lecce is where papier-mache was invented (at least according to the Leccese - and they call it cartapesta, thank you) so there are a lot of little terrific cartapesta shops.
They all have examples of their work outside, which ranged from full showpieces like this elephant to rows of small children's whistles. Much of the art was religious, with giant Jesuses on the cross (skinned knees and wounds lovingly painted).
We were particularly enamored of this farmer/shepherd.
Our next stop was at Santa Croce, which is probably the best example of Leccese Baroque we saw. It's amazing - it's either the product of a mind fogged by fever or indescribably brilliant. I haven't decided what I think, but it did put an unshakeable grin on my face for fifteen or twenty minutes.
(Don't worry - we have some great detail shots of the dragons and wolves and men struggling under the weight of the columns. They're even in daylight!)
Our next stop on our passeggiata was Lecce's central piazza, the Piazza Sant'Oronzo. In the middle of the piazza sits one of the two columns that used to mark the end of the Appian Way in Brindisi, until it was gifted to Lecce after a plague.
Wandering, as always, makes us hungry (and the fact that it was approaching 9 o'clock didn't hurt either) so we went over to a restaurant called Alle Due Corte for a real Leccese dinner.
Husbear, especially, was excited to try Pugliese food - their cuisine focuses more on vegetables than elsewhere in Italy, and they've long been the breadbasket of the country.
We started out, of course, with the house antipasti - an array of vegetables, grilled, sauteed, marinated, formed into cakes with egg...
Very good. I especially liked the sweet peppers, which were sauteed with bread crumbs in a type of agrodolce.
We ordered two primi off the menu, which was entirely in dialect with English translations. We found this odd - why not Pugliese dialect with Italian translations?
One was called "Lu Ranu te lu Tiaulu" - a spicy tomato-based stew with wheat seeds, olives, capers, peppers, artichokes, and mushrooms. It was probably the spiciest thing we've been served in Italy - no joke! And it was so good - really warming!
Our other primo was Ciceri e Tria, a specialty limited to the Salentine Peninsula. It's made with long thin pasta shapes, some of which are fried and some boiled, that are served with a rich chickpea sauce. It's just really simple ingredients put together in a delicious way. (This may have been Husbear's favorite dish of the whole trip.)
When the waiter came back to see if we wanted secondi, we debated with each other for a while, and ended up settling on the turcinieddhi - goat sausages. With perhaps a larger compliment of "innards" than we're used to in American sausages. They were very good, though quite livery - but much better than I would have guessed from the menu description: "Baby goat entrails (heart, liver, lung) rolled together and roasted."
Completely full, we turned down dessert in favor of some digestivi. I was disappointed when the answer to my by-now routine question "Avete digestivi locali?" (Do you have local after-dinner drinks?) was met with "Solo limoncello" - but the limoncello was good, definitely better than the other thing we ordered, a sweet dessert wine.
Stuffed from dinner, we left for a brief amble back through the streets of the old town and back to our hotel. On the way, we turned a corner onto a small street and were suddenly presented with this:
A Roman ampitheater, uncovered during construction in the past 100 years. It's so easy to get blasé about being in a country where several millenia of history are just piled up on top of themselves, but every once in a while something just stops you.
Tomorrow, more exploration of Lecce - lots of baroque and delicious Leccese food!
