This morning we celebrated with cream-filled coronettas and prosecco the end of my antibiotic; let the fun once again commence! Let’s also hope that I am through this siege at least until I enter Mexico again. In two words, Not Fun! Actually, I am making more of it than it was. I did appreciate the support of my wife, who also, needlessly abandoned the noble grape for 5 days and to those who experimented with a variety of non-alcoholic concoctions. My two favorite was Sergio (on the right) and our nominee for waitress of the year, Paolina!
Here we are enjoying our Bitte Rossos with arancia. I know it appears to be some Hawaiian brew, but seems to be a favorite of locals here in Lecce.
Rain has come and gone in the last couple of days. The sun did come out yesterday which was nice. It was a national holiday: the Festa della Liberazione – the celebration of the liberation of Italy in 1945. The town was packed (easily the busiest it has been since our arrival) and for brief periods the sun was shining.
It is a bit ironic that the town is the busiest, but many of the businesses shut their doors on this day. So, people seem to wander aimlessly looking for something to do. Mostly, that becomes finding another thing to eat. We sat and watched the hoards as we sipped coffee in the afternoon. We came back for another round of Bitte Rosso last evening and people still filled the streets.
As we went out in the early evening and walked past Santa Croce (most likely for the 100th time), I was suddenly struck by the delicate ornamentation on the columns. I thought is was worth recording.
The problem with that church is that there is so much to see, that some of the subtler elements get lost.
Later, as darkness fell, I caught this photo of the Sedia (the seat of the Town Hall until 1851) at night
from our vantage point at the Caffé Alvino that sits just opposite the Roman Theatre, on the very edge of where the real action in town is:
This is also the primary parking spot for motorcycles and scooters. There is a great deal of strutting, preening and primping as each proud peacock shows what is between his legs.
We returned home in the mid-evening for dinner. We had gone to the vegetable market and purchased the makings of a sort of Italian stir-fry. There were wonderful zucchini (with the blossoms still on them), huge red and yellow bell peppers, onion and fennel. We earlier had bought some really good olive oil, so that was all sautéd and was really delicious. We hve discovered something here called Cream of Basalmic Vinegar. It is a reduction of the normal basalmic vinegar and is like a syrup. Chefs use is to decorate or for a topping. We added it to the stir fry and it was great. In fact, we are now adding it to seemingly everything! The label even suggests adding it to sweets and ice cream. We haven’t gone there yet!
As we are adjusting to southern Italian hours, we found ourselves going back out for gelato. We have been trying different places, not yet finding anything in town to live up to our taste in Gallipoli. Last night was Caffé Alvino. There’s was very good. I had the Tiramasu (which I had the night before – trying a taste comparison) and Polley wanted Limoncello (after the famous liquor of Naples), but the girl could not seem to get the simple order straight and Polley ended up with a combination of some chocolate choice and Limoncello. Not the best combo!
As we strolled home, we did briefly partake of more Liberazione celebration – this rock band was playing the in the Palazzo di Celestini.
While this photo is dramatic, the music seemed to have no distinctive beat and people simply stood about trying to figure out how to dance to it! They may be there yet! If it weren’t for the smoke and lights, there would have been little reason to be there at all. And the music assure you that you weren’t there for long.
Well, not an exciting weekend. We are planning a trip to Bari (2 hours by train to the north) on Tuesday. Our next door neighbors parents are retired there and we are going to meet them and take them to lunch. We are quickly realizing that the first month has nearly slipped away and we need to pick up the pace although I must admit that we are both enjoying the slower lifestyle of Lecce.
More later.
Ed and Polley
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