NUMERO UNO : OFF THE TOURIST TRACK IN SALENTO
Evening in the Piazza Sant ’ Oronzo ; the author at Lecce ’ s Pizza & Co . ( right )
NUMERO UNO : OFF THE TOURIST TRACK IN SALENTO
You ’ re sitting on a bench on an old , narrow street , sipping a beer and eating pizza . Nearby , the pizza maker ’ s daughter dances while an earnest young couple sings folk songs . A wedding party marches past .
It ’ s the sort of scene you might expect from an Italian art-house film . It ’ s also a regular weekday afternoon in Lecce .
The main city of the Salento region , the geographic heel of Italy ’ s boot , is home to about 100,000 people and an abundance of 17th-century churches . For this reason Lecce is nicknamed the Florence of the South . Or call it Florence without the tour buses and selfie sticks : Travel here and instead of being one of an invading horde of tourists , you ’ ll feel like a welcomed guest in a long-lost cousin ’ s hometown .
Take the passeggiata , for example . The traditional evening stroll sees Lecce ’ s historic streets fill up with locals — everyone from babies in prams to grandpas with their canes . Teenagers stop to chat on church steps . Families walk together in the Piazza Sant ’ Oronzo , site of an excavated second-century Roman amphitheatre . Return to the square at noon the next day and you ’ ll be treated to a blast of
Vita
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One Italy , three dIstInct experIences
By Jennifer Allford
opera — a recording of Tito Schipa , a local singer who died in 1965 .
It ’ s these simple pleasures that make a trip to Lecce so appealing , as well as the fact that many other regional attractions
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