Some overnight delving in Lonely Planet informed me that Ostuni was the home of a famous award winning olive oil. Lonely Planet helpfully gave me details of a cooperative selling the oil and we set off through the streets of Ostuni to obtain this delicious liquid before we moved on in Basil. Unfortunately, after a 10 minute walk, it became obvious that the cooperative was shut. We could see bottles of oil through the window, but with no way to buy them we left in frustration.
Basil lugged us south by about 50 miles to the city of Lecce, right in the heel of Italy. Lecce is famous for its harmonious baroque architecture all built from a local golden limestone, whose soft consistency allowed 16th and 17th century craftsmen to carve intricate and elaborate details onto the principal buildings.
Lecce
The streets of Lecce are on an altogether grander scale than the small towns we have been exploring recently. Still paved with simple stone slabs, but with broad straight avenues. None of the quaint warren like streets of Locorotono or Ostuni.
Lecce
The limestone gives the whole centre a soft golden glow and we started with the Cathedral. Although the cathedral itself is not considered one of the baroque masterpieces the square surrounding it was a beautiful, harmonious space.
Cathedral Square
The architectural highlight of Lecce is the the Church of the Holy Cross. Its facade is so elaborately decorated that one critic said “it made him think a lunatic was having a nightmare”! We were therefore looking forward to seeing this controversial building. This is what we saw:
Nuff Said
Our second setback of the day. The interior of the church contains some intricate details, but again large school parties made viewing some of it difficult.
The Church of the Holy Cross
We made do with visiting a part excavated Roman amphitheatre and one of the columns which marked the end of the Appian Way. Having visited the start of the Appian Way in Rome last autumn, this gave the feeling of having completed a journey, but without the blisters a Roman Legionnaire would have suffered having walked the whole 360 miles!
Amphitheatre with column in the background, marking the end of the Appian Way
We wandered back to Basil and treated ourselves to an ice cream. We have to remember we are not on holiday and limit these treats, for the sake of our girths, but there is no ice cream like an Italian gelato.
To finish the day we drove to Gallipoli, on the coast, and established ourselves at Agricampeggio Torre Sabea (40.073089, 18.007751), an ACSI site charging only €15 a day, including wifi. There are camper stops available on the coast, but they do not seem to reduce their rates at this time of year so most of them are more expensive than the rates charged by campsites through the ACSI scheme. Why stay on a glorified car park when you can get the full facilities of a campsite at a lower price.
This is the life!
There are only half a dozen of us on the site and we sat out and relaxed under the clear mediterranean sky. It is now getting quite hot, providing there is no sea breeze. The locals of course are still in full overcoats with scarves!