Day Four- Cafe con Lecce

In the city of Lecce, in the heel of the boot of Italy, they have a regional coffee drink called an "espressino", an expression that would get you a small (read: thimble full of) coffee anywhere else in the country, but here buys you a delicious cup of espresso with a bit of milk and a hit of chocolate, a perfect lunch ender.

Triumphal gate into Lecce was made in 1548 for the Habsburg emperor Charles V, and much of the other architecture comes from around this time.

A lot of things are different about Lecce, a town that has a very distinct character derived from its unique history as a very old town supposedly founded by Cretans from before the time of the Trojan Wars (ie- more than 1,000 years BCE!)  It was an important agricultural center from the middle ages onwards, reaching a peak in the Baroque 15-1600's, when much of the architecture of the old town was created using the local limestone (dubbed "Lecce Stone"), still an important export, along with olive oil and wine.

The newer parts of town are filled with many architectural and business failures, such as this shuttered gas station that proves that "Googie" architecture wasn't limited to just Los Angeles 

Our hotel is just outside of the historical center, and the contrast, as in many European cities with intact historical cores, is pretty shocking. The outside looks gritty, semi-abandoned, with many boarded up houses, and architecturally confused. By contrast, the center is very uniform, cooler (despite the scarcity of trees), and inviting. The uniformity is due to two things: the yellow ocher color of the stone work that makes up almost every single building in the old town, and the profuse Baroque ornament that encrusts everything there. Besides its color, the other characteristic of Lecce stone is its softness; you can actually carve it using nothing stronger than a wire brush! It corrodes fairly quickly also, creating some fascinating patterns made by water and even wind.

Lecce stone corrodes fairly quickly, but the ease of carving it means that the stone carvers here are never short of work

Lecce has been nicknamed "the Florence of the South", but it is really very different. First of all, it is dead flat, and the old town streets are very narrow and lined with shops. Bikes, cars and even trucks still wind their way through, but it looks distinctly challenging to navigate. Secondly, that uniform character almost gives it an artificial feeling, somewhat akin to Disneyland, as if one shop had made all the buildings at once for a single audience, unlike the eclectic mix of Florence, with buildings from many different periods made of different materials and colors.

Animal and figure carvings can be a bit goofy at times

In addition, the provincial nature of being far away from the major cultural centers, combined with the ease of carving the stone, means that a lot of the stone ornament is extremely ornate and somewhat naive, with figures and animals that are entertaining, but not totally correct. This also probably adds to the Disneyland impression, since some of those sculptures are quite funny. There are also many churches everywhere (hey, it's Italy!) though quite a few have been deconsecrated and are used as shops or even an art gallery. Inside the ones I've gone into the same ornate character continues, with more "Solomonic" columns (spiraling shafts named after their alleged history from the Temple of Solomon) than I've seen anywhere else.

Section of a Solomonic column, of which there are dozens around town.

At night the streets are very well lit, with a yellow cast light that only increases the uniformity. I'll write some more about Lecce in the next few days, but I think I'll post this one now, so I can get ready for the closing event of the Salon tonight. Ciao!