Day trip from Alberobello to Lecce and Ostuni.

Lecce is in the Salentine Peninsula, the heel of Italy . Lecce is described as the Baroque masterpiece of southern Italy as all its churches and palaces are built in the baroque style. It is referred to as the Florence of the south because of its baroque buildings and because they speak "good Italian" like the Florentines.

Lecce boasts 40 churches - nothing to boast about! Luckily we only went to three and only went inside one - the Duomo (Cathedral of the Madonna Assunta) in Cathedral Square (Piazza Duomo). A dark, gloomy place it was too - typical baroque style. The Square also houses the Palazzo Vescovile (Bishop's Palace). The Basilica of Santa Croce, considered the emblem of the city, had my favourite scaffolding around it. I really should learn to embrace scaffolding. Adjoining the Basilica of Santa Croce is Palazzo Celestini - a beautiful baroque building that was once a monastery.

Lecce is also notable for its papier mache handicrafts. With the technique used in Lecce, a small figurine can take 25 days to make . I found a fabulous shop (not a tourist shop) with really interesting papier mache figurines. I would have liked to buy one but in true Italian style, the shop was closed for siesta. Everything closing for 2 to 3 hours in the middle of the day is a pain in the arse when you are only visiting a city/town for the day. This doesn't happen in the big cities (Rome, Venice etc) but Lecce and the smaller towns are not as touristy.

They hate the Turks in Lecce. This is because of a war and dominance by the Turks over the people of Lecce. The symbol/emblem of Lecce is a dolphin with a half moon in its mouth. The half moon represents Turkey - the dolphin (representing the people of Lecce) is eating the Turks.

The guide who took us for a walk around the old town shed a new light for me on baroque architecture:
Coming out of the Renaissance period of architecture that was all straight lines and asymmetrical, the baroque period used a style that went totally against this - twisted columns; windows on balconies that are off-centre to the arch it was intended to co-exist with; slopping balconies; churches with a façade that has nothing behind it .

The guide also informed us that when the old city was restored in the mid-20th century, the powers that be of Lecce placed a map of the old city at the gate to the city. However, when the map was installed, it was discovered the map dated from the late 19th century. So the square built by Mussolini in 1939 (the main square) was not on the map. But in true Italian style (the guide's words, not mine), they decided to leave the out-dated map in place.

On our way back to Alberobello, we took a detour to visit Ostuni - called the 'white city' due to its whitewashed buildings (very imaginative of the Italians). It is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the sea. Here we wandered at leisure around the small streets and I bought an unusual ceramic elephant to add to my collection.

Group dinner tonight in Alberobello. When it came to ordering coffee, I ordered a café latte. The waitress tried to tell me I actually wanted a cappuccino, I reiterated a 'café latte' . She didn't seem very happy about this and this became evident when coffees arrived for everyone but me. I sought her out and insisted on my coffee and then asked for directions to the toilet. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, she brought my coffee and started thumping with her finger on my place at the table - according to the others, indicating where was I and walked away with my coffee. What does it take to get a cup of coffee in this restaurant? Needless to say, I sought her out again and finally got my coffee.

What I learnt today...
To get a decent cup of coffee in Italy I need to ask for a 'café macchiato'. This is an espresso coffee with a little milk. I've been ordering a café latte which is a lot of milk with a little coffee, which is the most insipid coffee I've ever tasted. Even though I now know what to order, I've yet to get a hot cup of coffee - at best they are luke warm. I remember this from previous visits to Italy and things have not improved.