Lecce, Italy 5th and 6th June 2026

 Hi all,

We have had a great few days exploring wonderful Lecce, from city gate to city gate using the great local guide book. Yesterday we started at the first of the gates.

Then we meandered through the second “route” in our guide book of Lecce, trying not to see all of the 40 or so churches in the city all at once.


They really are magnificent, some more Baroque than others, but one has to wonder why Lecce needs a major church, basilica or cathedral every 200 metres or so? 

We did find some other buildings of interest though, like this 17th century private mansion!

Plus another piece of Roman antiquity, the 1st century Theatre, which was only rediscovered last century under 5 metres of fill.

Today we tried for the second day running to go to the nearby town of Gallipoli ( not the Turkish one). However, after waiting for the local bus, Goggle Maps finally let us down - we discovered through other tourists waiting at the same spot, that the service doesn’t kick off until mid June! Anyway, no problems, we had our trusty guide book and moved to meandering through route 3 of the guide.

We had a great local lunch at the Rustica Osteria, some of the best food we have had, for well under 50 Euro, including a bottle of excellent local Rosato!

Then on to the final gate of the day, before returning to the apartment to watch a bit of footy on the Watch AFL site - a must for overseas travel! Collingwood - Melbourne match is coming up on Monday, so we will have to be nice to each other!


Just to prove there are still more churches to see:


Almost time for another search for a trattoria for dinner, as it is nearly 8pm. Shouldn’t be a problem, there are hundreds! Farewell for now from the intrepid travellers ❤️🇮🇹

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