I woke to a very strange sound. Through the haze of sleep it sounded for all the world like a child playing a kazoo. As I came to, it became clearer – it was a child using a kazoo to make the sound of a cockerel. No, it was a cockerel with a crow impediment! How could that handsome-looking, proud cockerel that I had seen yesterday make a sound like that? I imagined the hens looking up at their master, hearing him crow and all falling about laughing. I couldn't get out of my head the image of the hens rolling about in the dust, holding their sides, aching with laughter whilst the haughty cockerel crowed with his kazoo pointing up to the sky.
Shortly after that small local trains went in both directions on the railway line and the campsite dog started barking, so that was the end of sleep. Still, it wasn't too early and we had no noise during the night, so a good night's sleep was had by all.
Today we wanted to explore Lecce, so we caught the bus from the bottom of the lane and arrived shortly afterwards in the centre of the town. Lecce is the largest town in the heel of Italy and, with its university and attractive architecture, it is surprisingly sophisticated. We found half of a Roman amphitheatre in one of the main squares (the other half is under an important church) and, close by, a rather forlorn Roman theatre with a very small but interesting museum displaying sculptures and mosaics from the theatre and amphitheatre. You won't be surprised to hear that Lecce was a Greek settlement that was later taken over by the Romans.
However, the main attraction of Lecce is the architecture, specifically the baroque architecture. In the 17th century the whole of the city decided to give the buildings a baroque make-over. We have seen huge amounts of baroque architecture in Italy and it has normally appeared over-the-top, heavy and very grey. This architecture was certainly over-the-top but, crafted in golden sandstone, it had a much lighter touch. The star of the show was the Santa Croce church with its front covered in intricate carvings that mix the religious with the pagan – I spotted a green man, earth goddess, Hercules, Romulus and Remus in addition to many mythical beasts. We turned the corner to be confronted by the façade and let out a collective “Wow”. There were many other examples of lovely architecture and we had to remember to look up as we wandered around the streets.
Opposite Santa Croce we found a small shop with a couple of Internet terminals and we were able to book our ferry crossing to Greece for Wednesday. We had tentatively arranged to spend Greek Easter (27th April) with our friends Glenn and Venice who have bought a house in the Peloponnese. We were able to email Glenn to say that we had booked our ferry and were delighted to receive the response that we were still welcome. We are looking forward very much to seeing them again.
That night we had the campsite to ourselves including the only shower cubicle containing two showers. However, they were very basic and we opted for our our luxury on-suite facilities.
Photos: The church of Santa Croce in Lecce; Detail of the Santa Croce façade with the Green Man and earth goddess.
Shortly after that small local trains went in both directions on the railway line and the campsite dog started barking, so that was the end of sleep. Still, it wasn't too early and we had no noise during the night, so a good night's sleep was had by all.
Today we wanted to explore Lecce, so we caught the bus from the bottom of the lane and arrived shortly afterwards in the centre of the town. Lecce is the largest town in the heel of Italy and, with its university and attractive architecture, it is surprisingly sophisticated. We found half of a Roman amphitheatre in one of the main squares (the other half is under an important church) and, close by, a rather forlorn Roman theatre with a very small but interesting museum displaying sculptures and mosaics from the theatre and amphitheatre. You won't be surprised to hear that Lecce was a Greek settlement that was later taken over by the Romans.
However, the main attraction of Lecce is the architecture, specifically the baroque architecture. In the 17th century the whole of the city decided to give the buildings a baroque make-over. We have seen huge amounts of baroque architecture in Italy and it has normally appeared over-the-top, heavy and very grey. This architecture was certainly over-the-top but, crafted in golden sandstone, it had a much lighter touch. The star of the show was the Santa Croce church with its front covered in intricate carvings that mix the religious with the pagan – I spotted a green man, earth goddess, Hercules, Romulus and Remus in addition to many mythical beasts. We turned the corner to be confronted by the façade and let out a collective “Wow”. There were many other examples of lovely architecture and we had to remember to look up as we wandered around the streets.
Opposite Santa Croce we found a small shop with a couple of Internet terminals and we were able to book our ferry crossing to Greece for Wednesday. We had tentatively arranged to spend Greek Easter (27th April) with our friends Glenn and Venice who have bought a house in the Peloponnese. We were able to email Glenn to say that we had booked our ferry and were delighted to receive the response that we were still welcome. We are looking forward very much to seeing them again.
That night we had the campsite to ourselves including the only shower cubicle containing two showers. However, they were very basic and we opted for our our luxury on-suite facilities.
Photos: The church of Santa Croce in Lecce; Detail of the Santa Croce façade with the Green Man and earth goddess.
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