Lecce and Ostuni - On The Adriatic Sea

LECCE

It was hard to leave our comfy, cozy cellar apartment this morning, but we wanted to visit the town of Lecce before we thoroughly explored Ostuni. Lecce is about an hour's drive south of Ostuni via the Autostrada on the Adriatic Sea in the heel of the Italian boot.

Lecce is full of cherubs, angels, saints, saviors, and Madonnas. – the Baroque masterpiece of southern Italy. Sometimes described as the 'Florence of the Baroque' or the 'Rome of the South', Lecce is really the only city destination in mainland Italy south of Naples which is appealing enough to attract large numbers of tourists. Lecce sits at the bottom of the boot (the Salento peninsula), in the Puglia region. We didn’t find many natives speaking English, and the only celebrity who has a property here is Helen Mirren, who has a castle nearby.

The city is surrounded by attractive countryside, seashore and small towns. The capital of southern Italian cooking, Lecce brims with rustic restaurants serving hearty peasant cuisine and robust red wines of the Puglia (Apulia in English) region.

Lecce's history goes back a long way. According to legend, a city called Sybar existed at the time of the Trojan War.. It was conquered by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, receiving the new name of Lupiae. Under the emperor Hadrian (2nd century AD) the city was moved 3 kilometres (2 miles) to the northeast, taking the name of Licea or Litium. Lecce had a theater and an amphitheater and was connected to the Hadrian Port.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Lecce was sacked by the Ostrogoth King Totila in the Gothic Wars. It was restored to Roman rule in 549, and remained part of the Eastern Empire for five centuries, with brief conquests by Saracens, Lombards, Hungarians and Slavs.

After the Norman conquest in the 11th century, Lecce gained commercial importance. The County of Lecce was one of the largest and most important fiefdoms in the Kingdom of Sicily from 1053 to 1463. In 1480, the Ottoman Empire tried to invade Italy near Lecce. The area was captured by the Ottoman Turks and 800 inhabitants beheaded. The invasion didn't work and the Turks left – but they are not forgotten. We were told that even today, when the locals get upset they can be heard to cry out 'Mamma la Turchi’ (Turkish Mother) ! 

From the 15th century, Lecce was one of the most important cities of southern Italy, and, starting in 1630, it was enriched with precious Baroque monuments. To avert invasion by the Ottomans, a new line of walls and a castle were built by Charles V, (who was also Holy Roman Emperor), in the first part of the 16th century. In 1656, a plague broke out in the city, killing a thousand inhabitants.

We could still see ruins of a Roman theater and amphitheater - but the period which led to town's current fame was the 17th century. A period of prosperity led to grand developments and the wholesale construction of palaces and churches. These buildings adapted the fashionable Baroque style to the soft local stone, with decorations and cherubs extravagantly covering facades and doorways. This local style is known as Barocco Leccese ('Lecce Baroque').

In 1943, fighter aircraft based in Lecce helped support isolated Italian garrisons in the Aegean Sea, fighting Germans during World War II. Because they were delayed by the Allies, the German Nazis couldn't prevent a defeat. 

Lecce has a lovely historic center, and we could easily spend days exploring picturesque little lanes and finding the more far-flung Baroque churches. The town's great artistic treasure is its architecture; in terms of other arts, such as painting, Lecce cannot really compare with northerly towns like Florence and Rome.

The Leccese stone, from which the town is built, is so soft you can carve it with a spoon - the masons soak it with milk to set it hard. The result is a city of golden honey hues. The most over-the-top decoration in town is seen at the Basilica di Santa Croce, which has a fantastic facade to marvel at, ornamented with strange beasts and symbols. How many ways can you carve a cherub ? 

The town has two main focal points: Piazza Sant'Oronzo and Piazza del Duomo. Piazza Sant'Oronzo is the big civic heart of the town, a large square with a slightly strange atmosphere, the ancient and the modern sitting uncomfortably together. The statue of a bishop perched on a column represents Sant'Oronzo, a patron saint of Lecce. The column is one of two which originally marked the end of the Roman Appian Way in Brindisi (a major Italian city on the southeast coast). Piazza del Duomo is an unusual interpretation of that familiar Italian cathedral square. In Lecce the cathedral sits in one corner of a partially enclosed square – a still space in the heart of town. 

Lecce has a true southern Italian rhythm. As the day heats up, the streets empty. Churches and businesses generally close for several hours. Unfortunately for us, those were the hours that we were there, and we were not able to go inside any of the churches. Local people re-appear as the afternoon cools into evening, but the ‘strolling hour’ here is later than northern parts of Italy.

Tom and I drove the hour back to Ostuni, following the coast, and with a view of the Adriatic most of the way. The market in town was actually open, many of them are closed in the afternoon, and purchased the ingredients for a late lunch/early dinner . . . pork, peas, pasta sauce and a bottle of local red wine. It made a quick and tasty meal.

Just as we were finishing up the dishes our AirBnB host, Renza and her daughter Graziana (who is a high school sophomore, speaking good English, acted as our translator) knocked on our door. Renza and her husband Antonio own an organic farm, and she wanted to know if we would be interested in seeing it. Yes, of course ! We all climbed into Antonio's car, and took a 10 minute drive to the gate of I Giardini della Grata.

Renza explained that the organic farm's mission is to save and protect the garden, and to organically grow more than 60 different ancient and local vegetables and herbs, such as orange beets, chicory, purple carrots, and not only red, but yellow, pink and green striped tomatoes. The aqueducts and cisterns are ancient, and parts of the garden date back to the Normans. There is a small cave on the property that may have been used during the Paleolithic era. This weekend, a group of University Archaeologists from Rome will be coming to explore and examine it.

After  our garden tour, it was time to climb the hill into Ostuni.



OSTUNI

Ostuni is one of Puglia’s most beautiful cities and famous towns in Apulia, a tumble of white-washed buildings perched strategically atop a hill with views of the endless olive trees in the Valle d’Itria countryside, and the glimmering Adriatic Sea just 8 km away, home to some of the region’s most exclusive resorts. Its unique historic town, called ‘Città Bianca’ (the Italian for ‘white town’), its monuments, its baroque-style churches, are examples of the great architecture and culture that characterizes this part of South Italy.

In the summertime Ostuni is a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. The population rises from about 30,000 inhabitants in wintertime to about 100,000. Most of the streets are packed with artists selling local arts and crafts including ceramics, sculptures, carvings and paintings. The items being produced and sold are not cheap but are completely unusual works of art.

The medieval walled city was built without a plan, and it shows. The web of streets is confusing, a maze of alleyways, staircases and arches. Buildings were built on top of each other, and the archways support the houses they connect, making up for the lack of strong foundations. You turn one way and find a dead end, another and get a glimpse of the sapphire sea. Puglia has seen a stream of invaders—Greeks, Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Normans—and the labyrinth of Ostuni is the perfect way to confuse the enemy.

The stark white buildings are dazzling in the southern sun and are brightened by vivid green and blue wooden doors, pots of red geraniums and cacti.

The region around Ostuni has been inhabited since the Stone age. The Ostuni area was populated during the palaeolithic period (50,000-40,000 years ago) by Neanderthal hunters who found shelter in numerous grottoes in the area. Traces of people liaving in the area are also proved by the discovery of the body of a 20 year old pregnant woman who had been buried in a hole in a grotto 25,000 years ago. The skeleton on the young woman, now named ‘Delia’, is displayed in the Church of San Vito Martire inside Ostuni historic center. The town is reputed to have been originally established by the Messapii, a pre-classic tribe, and destroyed by Hannibal between 218 BC - 201 BC during the Punic Wars. It was then re-built by the Greeks, the name Ostuni deriving from the Greek Astu néon ("new town").

Destroyed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in 996 AD the town became part of the Norman County of Lecce. From 1300 to 1463 Ostuni was part of the Principality of Taranto and from 1507 passed to Isabella, Duchess of Bari, wife of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan. Under the influence of Isabella, Ostuni enjoyed a golden-age within the wider context of the Italian Renaissance. In this period Isabella gave protection to humanists and people of art and letters. Isabella died in 1524 and Ostuni passed as dowry to her daughter Bona Sforza, wife-to-be of Sigismund I of Poland, King of Poland. During Bona Sforza's government, Ostuni continued to enjoy a liberal and high-minded regime. In 1539 she had towers built along all the shoreline as protection against anticipated attacks from Turks who controlled the Balkans.

In the 17th century a plague killed millions in the area and infected houses were painted white by mixing limestone dust with water. Locals noticed that there was less illness around the white houses and attributed it to a miracle; experts say most likely it was the antibacterial effect of the calcium carbonate. Nowadays the white houses attract tourists and the local government encourages everyone to repaint every two years by paying for half the cost.

It was only after the victory against Napoleon at Waterloo when the Bourbons came to power that Ostuni sent away the ‘non-native occupiers’. In the 1860, when Garibaldi united Italy, Ostuni became part of the new and finally formed nation.

The main street in Ostuni is lined with boutiques and souvenir shops selling local olive oil and Salentino sandals, but the best way to experience the town is by diving down the narrow side streets and like the invaders once did, getting lost.

At Ostuni’s highest point we found the Cathedral, built in the 15th century in Gothic style, rare in Puglia where most of the churches are austere Romanesque or ornate Baroque. Its graceful lines lead to the sky and there’s a magnificent rose window with Christ at the center surrounded by 24 finely carved columns representing the hours of the day.

In the center of Piazza della Libertà is a statue of Sant'Oronzo placed on top of a 20m carved steeple. He is actually the patron saint of Lecce but he saved Ostuni from the plague in 1657 and the statue was built in his honor (and the hope that he would continue to fight off future plagues) in 1771.

Tom and I walked up and down the many narrow streets, looking for good places to take photos, when I spotted what appeared to be a woodworking shop. As I hesitated at the door, I heard a voice that I hoped was saying "come on in", because that's what I did. There were beautifully carved knife handles, forks, spoons, and clock faces, all made of olive wood. I just had to purchase a spoon. The carver explained that it was a spoon for Parmesan cheese, and that I should care for the spoon by rubbing it with olive oil. It will always remind me of our days in olive country.

After a long day of exploring, it was time for some Gelato, and to watch the sunset over the Adriatic Sea.