As we continued our road trip down the Adriatic coast we visited the town of Lecce.

Church of Santa Croce

Lecce is in the heal of the boot and not far from the Adriatic Coast.  You could easily spend a day or 2 here wandering around this gorgeous town.

Piazza del Duomo

Lecce is a historic city of 95,200 inhabitants, the capital of the province of Lecce,  and one of the most important cities of Puglia.

We parked the car and explored Lecce by foot. It is a beautiful and interesting city with many Baroque buildings. Lecce is commonly nicknamed “The Florence of the South” because of the rich baroque architectural monuments found in this city.

In terms of industry the “Lecce stone” is the city’s main export, because it is very soft and malleable, thus suitable for sculptures. Lecce stone is a kind of limestone. Lecce is also an important  agricultural centre, chiefly for its olive oil and wine production, as well as an industrial centre specialising in ceramic  production.

Church of San Giovanni Battista

The Roman Amphitheatre

We were so enthralled by this beautiful city that we lost track of time and when we returned to our car we had an expired parking meter ticket. After asking around and then going to the police station we found out the way to pay for this ticket, which was to pay at the local post office (unificio postale). So we lined up with the locals to pay our parking ticket which cost 25 euro.

After leaving Lecce, we drove to San Foca where we stayed the night in a wonderful agriturismo.