While you are snuggled in your beds, it is Easter morning here in Italy. The Pope is on the television, the sun is trying to break through the clouds and we are siting at the table enjoying our Pane di Pasqua (complete with baked eggs) and drinking Prosecco.
A lovely tradition!
More on our Easter day once we have completed it. Yesterday was another quite nice day. If started, as Easter has, a bit cloudy, but by noon the sun seemed to be winning the battle. Polley and I, trying to adjust our sense of time, waited a bit later to go out. We decided to stroll a bit more up in the neighborhood near the Laundromat.
We just liked the feel of if the other day and decided to return.
As we strolled by Santa Croce, just down the street from us and a place we pass at least twice a day, I thought of a new feature for the blog. Santa Croce is covered with all sorts of figures, animal and human. I thought it might be fun to work our way across the façade, featuring a close-up of one or two of the figures each day. Here are your first two, located to the far right as you face the church.
Leaving the historical section of Lecce, we strolled up one street and down another just outside the Porta Napoli. At one point, we saw a large pediment supported by Greek-style columns. So we headed that direction, to find that is was the cimitero (cemetery ) for the city (cittá di Lecce). It was just closing at the noon hour, but we did manage a photo-op before moving on.
This very working class section of town is completely devoid of tourists so you must adjust at the locals staring at you and be prepared for any and all verbal stumbling to be done strictly in Italian. We stopped and had a glass of wine and just watched people go about their daily business: a shop owner and a deliveryman apparently arguing over a bill, a fellow parking his car as though he owned the whole street, and countless Italians yelling into their cell phones, trying to be heard over the other Italians honking their car horns. On our way back, we stopped at the outdoor market and bought some tomatoes and basil for our caprese, using the burratta cheese that we finally acquired. This will be a part of our Easter lunch, later today.
Then we just strolled (passeggiare) through the town. Lecce is a maze of streets, alleyways, and small courtyards and we are forever discovering new places we have not been.
The town was bustling on this Saturday before Easter. There was not a sense of it being a particularly religious day, but people were certainly preparing for their being little available on Easter Sunday.
The bakery (Il Fornaio) was busy with people getting their Easter bread and other goodies for the day. Shoppers seemed to be active and the cafes around the Piazza were all full. One of my favorite sights, was this clown becoming a one man band
As we headed home, we ran into our friend Mario, who was getting ready for the evening meal at Shui Bar. He convinced us that we needed to return a second night for his seafood salad (Insalata di mare). We are easy targets and told him we would see him later.
We returned home for a light lunch, not wanting to spoil our dinner, and then did our best to honor the siesta (also the Italian word for “nap”). Then it was some e-mails and a good deal of reading. I finished Brazilian author Paul Coelho’s strange novel about love, called Brida. Polley is working through the Tudors and the Stuarts with books by Philippa Gregory. About 8:30, still very early for the Italians, we ventured out, stopping for at the Santa Cruz “viniteria” for a glass of wine. It is right next door to Shui Bar and we know both owners and are trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings by frequently them both. The evening at that point was quiet. After a very nice Vino Bianco, we strolled about 50 feet to Shui for the Insalata di Mare. We also had two glasses of a wonderful local red wine, bottled by Rinzacco. It was excellent! So was the salad, as it was heaped with octopus, calamari, mussels shrimp with cooked zucchini, carrots, arugula and tomatoes. Mario then convinced us to have dessert: a Baba au Rum: basically a sponge cake with a good deal of rum in it, then topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Heavenly --- and deadly. As if we need anything else, the owner treated us to glasses of grappa and pieces of chocolate. Needless to say, the end of the evening followed close behind! However, once church got out, about 10 p.m. the action on the street picked up. When we left, about 10:30 p.m. all the tables were full and it became obvious that we were going to miss the action again. Ah well, we are working on the tempo, but still have a good deal to learn.
Ed and Polley
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