As I wind down from completing my thesis, I have been reviewing my WordPress Draft Folder, as I have many posts that were nearing completion but weren’t in my desire to complete my PhD.

This post did not make it past draft while travelling through Italy.

Lecce was wonderful, and it was hot. Afternoons when the town closed allowed me to work on the book chapter I was writing based on my research. It was also a time when I could participate in the “Shut Up and Write” sessions with my study buddy. We were early adopters of Zoom!

With nearly two weeks in Lecce, we could take it easy and live our slow travel mantra.

Our Airbnb apartment was delightful with a superb host. It was more B&B than Airbnb, with the traditional home-baked goodies our host provided an added benefit. Our apartment was ideally located near the train station, a bus stop, and a short walk to the old town. The entrance to our apartment was through a small door that did not indicate what was inside. Of course, our apartment was up multiple stairs, which is always a challenge with suitcases. At least it was well lit. The apartment had been our host’s home until she and her husband had children, at which time they moved to a farm just outside the town. We were the beneficiaries of the farm with fresh produce each morning, along with those baked goodies.

We continued our sight a day or even a no sight a day strategy. It’s one of the delights of slow travel and ideal for summer when the days are long and hot.

While Lecce isn’t at the top of the tourist agenda, it has plenty to see and great bars and restaurants. I quickly succumbed to Negronis as aperitivo. My favourite person who needs to be careful not to drink anything too cold decided that Rose was a good compromise, although she did flaunt the rules with an Aperol Spritz or two.

We regularly slipped into conversation with fellow travellers, making our evenings more pleasant. We got to know a German solo traveller and her beagle over a couple of nights at dinner and a delightful young Australian couple with whom we spent a hot summer evening chatting about wine and travel experiences. We eagerly compared stories, and each built a list of places to visit on our travels. I felt a trip to the Greek Isles was coming, but COVID fixed that!

Our menu Italian was getting better as we found that English was much less commonly spoken than we’d expected. Our local supermarket, which had quite possibly the best prosciutto crudo I have ever eaten, was a challenge with pointing, finger counting for slices and a few Italian words like “Questo” necessary to get our basic provisions. Bar and waiting staff are happy to be practised on – “una bichiere vino Rosato”. I couldn’t say we nailed the language, which is a little embarrassing given my heritage.

Not everything in Lecce involved bars, but it did involve staying out of the heat as much as possible.

We visited the Jewish History Museum, a small private museum that tells the history of a small, now defunct Jewish community in Lecce. It was an interesting museum, more for the stories than the sights. Our guide was a font of knowledge, telling us what the museum director had surmised from the “crumbles” (ruins).

Lecce has a feel similar to that of Sicilian cities like Syracuse. Narrow streets and yellow sandstone buildings in various states of repair and disrepair. Like Sicily, Lecce has been invaded on many occasions. Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, Normans and Lombards have each left their traces, making Lecce a treasure trove.

No place better illustrates this than the private Museo Archeologico Faggiano. The museum’s story is almost as interesting as what’s inside. In search of a blocked sewerage pipe, the owner found a treasure trove of history and, eventually, several years later, the blocked sewerage pipe. Instead of the trattoria he intended for the site, it has become a private museum. It’s pretty low key. When you arrive, you are given a typed story about the museum and its history, and then it’s follows the numbers to see the hidden treasures below ground and in the convent above.

The museum is one of the highlights of Lecce. It would have been wonderful to have seen more of the items found during the dig, but many of them are now stored off-site.

Italy is full of churches, and Lecce is no exception. Churches provide a respite from the heat, but more importantly, each church reveals its own story. There is a ticket entrance fee for the main churches, and others are free.

The baroque style exteriors are only the beginning. The interiors are just as ornate.

Although the city is mainly narrow streets with buildings all around, there was a lovely garden on the edge of the city that provided a respite from the heat of the day.

As a sports nut, I quickly bought into the local football team, which had recently won promotion to Serie A. The town was a buzz about the prospects for the coming season. Lecce’s time in Serie A was short-lived, just one season. I still wear the team cap, the same colours as our local team Adelaide United.

Our time in Lecce was fabulous. Of course, it was hot, but that’s the time of year, and as Australians, heat is something we are used to. We regularly sought refuge from the heat in little coffee shops, boutiques and bars. But for the heat, we probably would have just walked by, and that would have been a shame. The boutiques and small coffee shops are where the life of the locals is found. It’s where families and friends catch up. It’s where small children run rampant, and sometimes there is a homemade gem, whether that be food, a piece of jewellery or the like. It’s not the stuff to be captured by a camera, but it’s caught in your heart and mind. It’s the essence of these places, in the same way as in our own home towns.

The Adriatic coast is not necessarily front of mind for a trip to Italy; however, it is definitely worth visiting, whether by flying into Bari, the major town of the region or by train. We took the train. Lecce provides a great base to visit the region whether using public transport that is plentiful during the summer or taking advantage of the many chauffeured or bus tours.