Renée
Holidays in Leccea, in the Salento. Back to the week we didn't have our Smart that took us everywhere. There was 1 day in those 3 weeks of vacation that ensured that I never go to Lecce again, without having rented a car. From day one, which is ready on arrival. How hot it was!
I don't remember why, but there was one day when we woke up - most likely after an evening of 6 cocktails at Quantobasto and 4 bottles of wine with doppiozero – and decided to stay in Lecce that day.
We thought it would be nice to see all the sights of Lecce for a day. During your vacation you often tend to go out and see other places and cities. Sometimes you forget that the place where you stay is secretly just as beautiful.
Lecce is a beautiful city
With Lecce, that is definitely the case. Lecce is truly a beautiful city: fantastically maintained, beautifully renovated buildings, museums, churches, parks, the castle ... And don't forget the amazing restaurants and cafes, the friendly people, the beautiful shops, the lovely side streets where you can get lost and beautiful nature.
But despite all the pomp and circumstance, we did make a dramatic mistake.
Not too cold, not too hot
The air conditioning and the thick stone walls in our apartment made it difficult for us to estimate what the weather would be like that day. My girlfriend opened the weather app on her iPhone and it didn't seem to be one of those sunny days. In other words, the perfect day to stay in Lecce. There would be sun, but also clouds, not cold, but not too hot either.
We got up quite early, got ready (no bikini today, lovely!) and left for Caffe Cittadino, our breakfast spot. We took a seat on the terrace, which we never did otherwise. We were actually always inside, because of the heat, but we stayed in Lecce this day, so we decided to do everything differently, starting with breakfast on the terrace.
A hot breakfast
Not a good idea. We ordered two cafe fresco, two multigrain croissants and two pasticiotti, as always. It soon turned out to be warm… Warmer than expected. Hot. sweltering hot.
We sat for a while, quietly eating our breakfast. Took a table in the shade half way through but avoided the conversation about the heat. We sat there, sweating, working on our complexion.
We settled and went into town. Visited all the churches we came across. Ordered a coffee around 11 am (and drank it inside), got lost pretty quickly in the side streets and the whining about the astonishingly high temperature followed amazingly quickly.
Hot, huh?
'Is it hot?' 'So hot, don't do this!' "Yeah, no, but I'm really sweating a lot." "Shut up, I'm like a swimming pool." "If only I had a swimming pool." "But we can't complain." 'No, that's right… it's delicious too!' 'Yes! But hot.'
Actually, it would have been a ridiculous idea to stay in the city, strolling in the blazing sun, but we were and remain cheerful.
Street art and photos
We soon noticed that, in addition to all the beautiful things, Lecce also possesses some remarkable 'street art', as we called it. The dice came back quite often in the streets. What exactly this means, I don't know to this day, but we did have a good laugh.
Knowing that it's nearly impossible for both of us to get anywhere close to normal, we decided to pose extensively in every photo for the entire holiday.
Street art became our theme and so said, done! A photo series further, we ended up in a photobooth. This was really the height of bad ideas, but just thinking about it makes me fall off the couch laughing and that's worth something!
At over 45 degrees in an enclosed two-by-one photo booth, on each other's lap is the perfect combination for the most horrific photo I've ever seen in my entire life.
So we gave it to Marta as a thank you card and yes, she was very happy with it (and we're glad we got rid of it).
Off to Porto Cesareo
Lecce is beautiful and please pay attention to all the beauty (don't forget the street art), but don't do that with 27+ degrees. Trust me, a little gas on that lollipop and on to Porto Cesareo, much better advice!
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