10th May - Around Lecce

The weather a delight! - 50 meters to breakfast - is life meant to be so easy? - 50 meters home - laundry duties are complete and we stroll out determined to be slow and relaxed. 

Past examples of the paper mache figures that the Lecceans are so proud of. 

Past another composite. 

It is early - the tour guides have not yet had time to gather their flocks - we pause at shops that display ceramic characters from Salento. "Attractive in their ugliness" says Bernie. 

Sometimes our timing is good - sometimes our timing is bad - today is good - we turn up at Piazza Doumo just as the little white train is about to depart for its circuit of Lecce - it has two seats left! 

We pass the city hall - it's huge plaque remembers Lecce hosting of the XV Congress during the reign of Leo XII.

With apologies for the inadequacies of Google Translate, the plaque reads:

THE POPE TO THE CITY OF LECCE

THE EXCELLENT SUCCESS OF THE XV CONGRESS IS DUE PARTICULARLY TO THE WELL-KNOWN RELIGIOUS FERVOR OF THE BELOVED PUGLIAN OULATIONS, BUT NOT TO THE HAPPY CHOICE OF THE CITY OF LECCE, WHICH WITH EDIFYING COURAGE HAS ACCEPTED THE OFFICE AND THE HONOR OF HOSTING HIM WITHIN ITS VILLAGE WALLS, NOT SPARING EFFORTS AND SACRIFICES. TRULY WORTHY OF REPRESENTING CATHOLIC ITALY IN THIS HOUR OF FAITH, AND YOUR CITY, O LECCESI, GENEROUSLY OFFERED BY YOU AS AN ALMOST NOBLE SCENE. 10 TO THE GRANDIOUS TRIUMPH OF THE EUCHARIST. LECCE, CALLED THE ATHENS OF PUGLIA FOR ITS CULTURE AND KINDNESS AND THE FLORENCE OF THE SOUTH FOR THE SWEETNESS OF ITS LANGUAGE, AND FOR THE ANTIQUITY AND SPLENDOR OF ITS HISTORY, IS ONE OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS CITIES IN ITALY, AND HAS WITH THEM THE MERIT OF PRESERVING INTACT ITS ANCIENT CHRISTIAN FACE AND HEART, DESPITE THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. OF THE RELIGIOUS PAST OF THIS CITY, WHOSE FOUNDATION DATES BACK TO THE ROMAN AGE, ARE TODAY ESTIMATED ITS MONUMENTS AND ITS SPLENDID SACRED BUILDINGS. SUCH AS, AMONG OTHERS, THE BASILICA OF SANTA CROCE, THE CATHEDRAL DEDICATED TO THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY, THE CHURCH OF SAN DOMENICO, WITH THEIR CHARACTERISTIC STYLE RECALLING THE SPANISH BAROQUE, CALLED PLATERESQUE, ABLE TO EXPRESS, WITH FORMS OF EXUBURANT FESTIVALS AND SOPHISTICATED ELEGANCE, THE HAPPINESS OF A PEOPLE WHO LIVE AND WISH TO HONOR THEIR FAITH TO THE MAXIMUM. THE FERVENT DAYS OF THIS CONGRESS HAVE GIVEN ELOQUENT DEMONSTRATION OF THEIR PRESENT RELIGIOUS VITALITY, WHICH HAVE SEEN AUTHORITIES AND PEOPLE, SOLDIERS AND WORKERS, CHILDREN AND SICK, IN A WORD, FLOWING TO THE SACRED ALTARS. ALL THE CLASSES OF THE CITY AND OF THE SALENTO PENINSULA FOR WHOSE CENTERS ALREADY IN THE YEAR OF ITS FORTHCOMING PREPARATION THE DEVOTED EUCHARISTIC PILGRIMAGE JESUS ​​PASSING BY HAD SPREAD TREASURES OF BLESSINGS, AND OF THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS AND EUCHARISTIC FERVOR THE CITIZENS HAVE DETERMINED THAT A PERENNIAL MEMORY OF THIS RELIGIOUS AND EUCHARISTIC FERVOR REMAIN IN THE SINGLE GIFT OFFERED TO THE CONGRESS IN THIS SQUARE OF THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND, SPECIALLY BUILT AND AT THIS TIME BECOME THE RELIGIOUS HEART OF BELOVED ITALY.

MAY THE LAUGHING AND DEAR CITY OF LECCE, WHICH ENJOYS THE PATRONAGE OF ITS BELOVED ST. ORONZO, WHOSE NAME IS HONORABLY CARRIED BY MANY OF HIS CHILDREN, AS WELL AS THE DISTINGUISHED CO-PATRON ST. BERNARDINO REALINO, ITS INFANT CHRISTIAN APOSTLE, ELEVATED BY US OURSELVES TO THE SUPREME HONOURS OF THE ALTARS. MAINTAIN AND INCREASE ITS FAME AS AN EXEMPLARY CHRISTIAN CITY. AND AS THE SKILLED HANDS OF YOUR ARTISANS KNOW HOW TO MODEL IN HUMBLE MATERIAL 1 DEVOTED IMULACRAS OF SAINTS AND DRAW FROM THE VERY STONE OF YOUR SOIL 1 MIRRORED EMBROIDERIES THAT ADORN THE SACRED BUILDINGS, SO THE DIVINE GRACE, TO WHICH YOU OFFER YOUR THREE SOULS, DOCILE AND MALLEABLE, WILL TRANSFORM AND ENRICHED YOU, ACCORDING TO THE MODEL OF CHRIST HIMSELF, INTO MEN OF WHOM THE CHURCH CAN BE PROUD.

MAY 6, 1956

The little white train continues it's travels through Lecce - pleasant but not excessively so.

Back into the old city - the signs tell us the ZTL are inactive!

We pass through Piazza Sant'Oronzo - a huge stage is being set up - there are stand after stand in the process of being erected and established - this is to be the end of the Alberobello to Lecce stage of the Giro in two days time - the city is alive in pink! 

Onwards through the now crowded old city - there are tour guides guiding geriatrics like us - there are tour guides guiding school groups on history excursions - there are tour guides guiding middle aged tourists - the groups are distinguished by their speed and their noise! - the school children out-perform the middle-ages who in turn relegate the geriatrics to a distant third. 

No matter the type of flock being shepherded, the little white train driver patiently pauses, toots then presses on through the crowds - there is remarkably little angst on the part of anyone.

Onwards towards the Piazza and the biscuit sellers reach up to the train passengers handing out samples of their wares - delicious - we may return!

Almost back at the Piazza we laugh at the advertising of the coffee shop as we squeeze by.

The train trip over - we debate paying for tickets into the Duomo - lunch proves to be  too much of an attraction.

A delightful morning leading to a delightful nap.

We rise to try the wine provided to us by our "pensone" - a kosher red wine - we love it - what the hell is it - it is photographed front and back - Google translate is not much help - it translates primitivo to primitive - Bernie searches the web - ah -  primitivo is a red wine variety also known as Zinfandel - Dan Murphy will be approached upon our return!