31 December 2021

Merry Day After Christmas from Lecce: St. Stephen's Day 12-26

Before I wrap up our holiday trip to Lecce, I want to give a quick shout out to our family for sending us the cute Christmas post card!  My apologies - I kept forgetting to mention it here.  It actually arrived before Christmas (a real Christmas miracle given the bad reputation of Poste italiane).  Aside from a couple of Amazon packages, this was the first "real" mail we've received here! Thank you!  :)

We started off our last day in Lecce with an unexpected pancake breakfast.  The reason it was unexpected was because when we stopped for our morning caffè at little nearby café, we thought the server asked us if we wanted "pound cake."  Since Italian breakfasts mostly consist of coffee and a sweet pastry of some kind, and since we didn't stop to consider the fact that pound cake, as such, isn't really a thing here, we said "Sì."  

What she actually asked us was whether we wanted pancakes:


I have to say, they were excellent!  And they had real syrup, too (which, incidentally, I've so far only seen at the Carrefour Supermarket in Termoli - imported from Canada and displayed on the "international" shelves, along with peanut butter and soy sauce and the like).

Our first stop after breakfast was at the Porta Napoli triumphal arch - one of the three city gates.  I'd wanted to get a good daylight photo of it, as well as one of the nearby obelisk:



From here, we decided to head towards the Basilica di Santa Croce, one of three churches left to see on our LeccEcclesiae tickets.  The church is right next to the former Celestine Monastery, which now houses the Provincial Palace (where the prefettura - that is, the seat of the province's government - is located).  Before visiting the basilica, we walked through the courtyard of the palazzo:

The basilica is to the far right


Courtyard in the Palazzo della Provincia

We walked through the courtyard and came out onto a street, across which was the Giardini Pubblici Giuseppe Garibaldi, a public park.  We crossed over to explore the park, which had busts of various historical figures from Italian history (all men!  grrr!), a nice little fountain, a children's play area, a fancy little pavilion, and of course the requisite statue of Garibaldi  (as Sant'Oronzo is to Lecce, Garibaldi is to Italy as a whole):





Every once in a while I let Paolo take my picture, just to prove I'm actually here, too

After checking out this adorable little park, we headed back through the palazzo courtyard and over to the basilica, which was another stunning example of the baroque art and architecture so prevalent here.  

That's Paolo standing by the main entrance.  Masks are now compulsory even outdoors.

Looking down the central nave

Main altar

Obligatory Nativity Scene

One of the side altars

Detail of the gorgeous ceiling.  This photo doesn't do it justice.


Display of icons created by an icon painter from Lecce, Antonio Bongiorno


Detail from the front façade

Our next stop on the ticket was Chiesa di Santa Chiara (for a couple of heathens, we do find ourselves inside quite a lot of churches).  One interesting thing that I didn't realize until after we'd visited is that the ceiling you see is actually a false ceiling made of papier-mâché.


The false, papier-mâché ceiling.  Not a great photo of it, but in person, it really does look just like wood.





A rather lackluster Nativity Scene


Detail on the outside of the church:  Madonna del Carmine - we would say Our Lady of Mount Carmel in English, I think

Our final baroque church on the ticket was San Matteo.  The façade of this little gem is currently under renovation:



In spite of the ongoing restoration, it was definitely worth a visit to see the interior.  There are traces of old paint that can be seen in some of the side altars, and one that is fully painted, to make it appear as if there is a curtain behind the altar.   There are statues of all 12 Apostles on columns throughout the church.


Painted "curtain"


San Paolo meets San Paolo

Another obligatory Nativity

One thing I neglected to mention previously was that there seems to be a little "mini train" driving around for tours of the center of the old town.  We saw it several times at the Piazza del Duomo, and we thought today might be a good day to check this out.  We googled it, and while we didn't find much direct information about it, we found one site that mentioned that it departs from the Castello Carlo V (yes, that Charles V) every hour.  We decided to take a walk down there (another building under repairs).  While we didn't find the mini train, nor was the castello open at the time to visit the interior, we did at least get to see the exterior of the palace:



This fountain is actually more interesting that the palace, I think.

For dinner that evening, we stopped at a random restaurant - the name of which escapes me, unfortunately - but one of the items on the appetizer menu was "nachos," and so we just had to try them, to see how the Italians would interpret this dish (we were mainly curious as to what kind of cheese would be on them).  That weird orange Kraft Cheese sauce is definitely not a thing here (thankfully):

Not sure what they used, but it was a good "melty" cheese - it melted as well as, but tasted better than, say, the white American cheese that we might use for a grilled cheese sandwich in the US

As we were enjoying our dinner and cocktails, a marching band came down the street!  I took a video of the band as they came by; I can't upload the video directly here, but I have it on my google drive:  Zagor Street Band video.  I looked them up, and you can read a little blurb about them here.

As we headed back to our hotel, we passed by the Chiesa San Francesco della Scarpa, located right next to the Bernardini Library.  The church has been deconsecrated; it is now used as an exhibition space.  We noticed that the door was open, with a sign pointing to one of the library entrances next door, through which the exhibit space could be accessed.  We decided to see what was on display inside, and were delighted to discover the "Frammenti di Luminarie" installation:



This part of the exhibit was about light being made from prickly pears, mussel shells, and oil


You can still see some of the paintings on the walls


 View from one side altar across to the other - only a few of the side altars still remain here

 
The framework and hardware used for these kinds of lights.  The crate at the far end was full of white lightbulbs.

And...that was our holiday in Lecce.  Overall impressions:  fantastic weather (high 50's - mid 60's in December!); very walkable (mostly flat) old town; tons of gorgeous architecture to see; interesting museums and art; great restaurants; a train station to connect you to other parts of Italy; strict Covid measures are adhered to (face masks required indoors and out, proof of vaccinations required for indoor activities and dining, etc. - more on this in another post)…15/10 would go again!

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