Travel Guide Lecce

What can we say about the wonder of the traveller who arrives for the first time in Lecce! It is, in fact, impossible to visit Puglia without stopping in this magnificent city, just as one would not be able to discover Tuscany without staying in Florence. A true open-air museum preserved from the outside by its monumental gates, the capital of Salento is the faithful reflection of a golden age of Puglia, that of the Leccese baroque which, in the 17th century, came to dust off the medieval monuments with its spirit. All the buildings in Lecce bear the mark of this refined style, far removed from Roman monumentality, and whose irony and taste for whimsical ornamentation give the city a fascinating lightness. All this is enhanced by the pietra leccese, the blond limestone used in the construction of churches and palaces, whose colour changes with the day, pink at dawn, honey-coloured at dusk. Lecce also remains an aristocratic city where the spirit of a culture of ancient traditions lingers and where a sort of elegant "decadence" reigns, very much in keeping with this city: the clothes are more refined than elsewhere, the language is purer and humour is a true art of living. The "Florence of the South", as it is called, was certainly little touched by the Renaissance because what characterizes it is the baroque effusion; what makes its atmosphere comparable to that of Florence is its concentration of architectural marvels, its aristocratic splendour, the alleys of its centre, the interior of its palaces. Lecce is like a theatre set, frozen and alive at the same time, seductive and surprising too.