One Night in Lecce

We had one down day in Lecce in a beautiful AirBNB just a few steps from the main Saint Oronso piazza. We said goodbye to our fellow bikers and carried our stuff through the streets of Lecce. I was intent on getting a massage and I found a place right around the corner from our apartment. Nancy wasn't feeling it, so She went off to paint and I went off to get scrubbed with sugar and sweat in a Turkish bath for an hour. I had a lovely massage and my masseuse told me I am the pitta chakra and she was very excited about it.

Nancy and I met back up and walked the city a bit, eating gelato and peeking in the shops. We found a place to settle in and order coffee to play Scrabble but we ordered espressini freddo which turned out to basically be an ice cream drink that I couldn't even finish. We had some bitter Rosato and I won the game. We went back to our apartment to get ready for dinner and played Scrabble again out on our little balcony overlooking a puppeteer act. We started realizing how loud it was going to be at night.

The restaurant we wanted to go to was booked until 10, so we went to a place that looked like an Appleby's but had the most amazing pizza for an appetizer/ dinner #1. Then we went to Le Zie - a cute little trattoria with the feel of eating at someone's house. It is known for its authentic local food - you have to ring a buzzer to be let inside.

We ordered orecchiette and the local

Ciceri e napi - a fava bean and pasta dish - but we were so tired and not all the hungry anymore for dinner #2, so it was a bit of a bust. We then waited over 30 minutes for our check. It is definitely interesting that the restaurant culture is very much about getting your order quickly when you first arrive somewhere. Often I haven't even read the whole menu before I have a waiter coming to take my order - then the food comes out very quickly and they want to clear your plate the second you take a breath while eating - but once you're finished eating, it takes forever to get the bill, you always have to ask for it, it never just turns up, and often you have to ask more than once! We are not big on the after dinner coffee and drink thing, so maybe we are messing up the flow by not having espresso and grappa at midnight, but it is frustrating sometimes. I guess we are learning patience.

When we got back to our room it was so loud outside, it was almost like we had a festival in our bedroom - the whole city is out at 1am!! But the design of the windows and shutters is so brilliant that it goes from hundreds of decibels to dead quiet as soon as you close everything up - no problem.