Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Trip to Lecce, Puglia

Puglia (pronounced Poolia, like Julia) is down in the heel of the Italian boot.


Lecce (pronounced much like the Spanish word for milk--leche) is the beautiful town in the middle with its own style of architecture: lecce boroque.


People in Lecce are short. Even Nora has to duck to get in.
This is the hotel we stayed in. It's in a 16th cenury palazzo and only set us back about 45 euro/night. Highly recommended with a great rooftop view. There are actually 2 in the palazzo: The Centro Storico B&B
and The Azzurretta B&B.
The owners are brothers. The brother we stayed with is named--i kid you not--Toolio.


I am a deadly weapon. You've been warned.


Here's a common mode of transportation. Not really, but it does remind me of the bigwheel I had as a kid.


This blurred view of the Puglia countryside between Bari and Brindisi. It looks like an impressionist painting. You can probably photoshop a Monet painting pretty easily from this.


Nora likes to make her mom nervous. OK, maybe I encourage this behavior.


The happy travelers in Santa Maria di Leuca.


The water is really that color. The limestone filters the water and the light sand reflects the sunlight. It looks clean enough to drink (not recommended).


These next 2 are taken from the very tip of the stilletto heel of the boot. It's the first place in Italy to see the sunrise in the morning.




These people were having a picnic and catching sea urchins, clams, oysters, fish and other stuff that they eat raw in Puglia. Don't cringe; it tastes great.


More beautiful water, if you like that sort of thing. Again, not drinkable. Who knew?


Very trusting people. Who wants a boat?


Crazy kids--horsing around. (Sorry.)


We decided to go different ways. The beach north of Otranto, Puglia.


I'll miss her, though.


United again, surfing the rocks of the Adriatic Sea.


Brandy doesn't like to run around in the sand as much, but she doesn't judge us for our childish behavior.


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BEAUTIFUL photos. Thanks for posting them. Looks like a great trip. Nora is such a good little traveler!!:-)

Anonymous said...

Hi, very nice pictures. I am an Italian and I come from exactly that area: a small town 25 km south of Lecce. I live close to Castro, Santa Cesarea, Otranto, Gallipoli, Leuca...
Now I am in Virginia as a research assistant. I was surprised to see those pictures. Not many Americans visit south Italy (the heel of the boot). I always suggest people to go there to "breath" the real Italian life style. Gio

Chiocciola said...

Great post and great photos!! Looks just beautiful. I came across this when searching for images from Lecce. I am going there in two weeks so this was a great inspiration!