Friends, Farewells and Final Thoughts

Friends, one and all,

It is Saturday morning, 30 May, our last full day in Lecce. And this is what may be the final blog entry for this adventure. We catch a train to Rome tomorrow, spend a night in Rome and then get on a plane to Athens for two weeks on the Peloponnese with our good friends, Ingrid and Yorgos. I am not sure what internet access we will have there, so we may be out of touch until we come home, 15 June.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to leave you with some of our final thoughts about Lecce and our trip.

A little more than two weeks into our stay in the pretty, but very quiet Italian city, I can remember Polley and I thinking that while it is lovely, there would be little need to return. Six weeks later, our thoughts are very different. It is going to be very difficult to get on the train tomorrow. And what makes the leaving hard, it not the city itself, but the people here and the quality of life. We have very much found ourselves in love with “Salento Time.” While we have often said that traveling is about the people you meet, here in Lecce we have really felt that. I said to Polley last night as we sat having a glass of wine at Il Portico, with a light breeze and a “tiny, silver slipper of a moon” shining over city hall,


that the sites you see are always intriguing, but in some way they become so many notches on a belt. It is really experiencing the people in their environment going about their daily lives that most appeals to us. We feel very fortunate to have the luxury of the time to do exactly that. Consequently, we find ourselves talking about a return to Lecce, to the lifestyle and to our friends, two years down the road.

So, in this last blog, we wanted to revisit the people who have made this stay very special and who we have “revisited” this week in a whirlwind of meals and social occasions.

When traveling in a foreign country, to our way of thinking, the highest compliment we as guests can receive is to be invited into someone’s home. Last Sunday, the whole crew from Shui Wine Bar hosted us in a marvelous seafood feast.




Sebastiano, his partner, Francesca 2 (called that because the waitress at Shui is a Francesca as well), and the waitress, Francesaca 1 pick us up for a short trip to the apartment of Mario, chef at Shui and someone who has become a very close friend. Mario, as I am sure I have mentioned, was a chef in London for 15 years, so his English is very good.


That allowed for us to make an easy entry into the world of Shui.
But despite varying levels of English, we have enjoyed each other almost from the first day of our arrival.

Sebastiano, owner of the restaurant/bar is a delight. Funny, outrageous, and “molto gentile,”


he is a round peg in a round hole as host of Shui.

Francesca 2 is his partner.


She is working on becoming a lawyer, but also helps out at the bar on weekends. She has very limited English, but she is a bright, warm, a perfect balance for Sebastiano.

Francesa 1 has been working for Shui for the last 4 years.


She has some English and confesses to understanding Mario’s British-English much better than our American dialect. However, for her, the restaurant crew is family and she contributes to an atmosphere of fun and high spirits.

And, of coure Mario. He is a chef and an artist.


He is a true gentle soul who took us into his heart as well as his home. Part of the motivation for our going to his apartment was to see his artwork. He is preparing for an exhibition that will be transmitted live over the internet in September. He wanted us to help give a name to his pieces.


These blank faces became for us, “Reflections,” as he tried to express the impact of technological detachment on images and relationships.

Of course, there was also the food in evening. Mario had been to the sea and brought back bags of Mussels and Shrimp. In next to no time, all was on the table and the laughing, talking (in two languages) and the drinking commenced. It was a glorious send-off.

Tuesday evening, we were guests of Max and Paulina. She is the Czech waitress at Il Portico, the little bar/snack bar that became our daily haunt as we sat with a glass of wine and watched the activities of Piazza Sant’Oronzo, the social center of all of Lecce. We learned that our first day of sitting there, was only her second day of work! So, we were both evolving over the course of the last two months. Her ragazzo, Max, was out host and he treated us to a wonderful meal at the Patria Hotel. At dessert, we were joined by another waitress from Il Portico, Donatella, who was celebrating her 20th birthday. From Napoli, she has quite a bit English as does her ragazzo, Adriano.

It turned out that Adriano was also a chef, having worked in Miami for 3 months and he invited us to his restaurant, Amici Miei (My friends), owned by the Il Portico people) for the next evening.


So the party continued on.

Wednesday at lunchtime, we took a third Il Portico waitress to lunch. She is Sylvia Marry, a 20 year old from Bergamo, in the north. She is a wonderfully expressive, enthusiastic, energetic young woman, with a good deal of English.

Each day she delighted in telling us more and more about Lecce and pushing to this thing and that. We took her to a little trattoria in town and had a lively time,


as only one can with Sylvia.

That evening it was another night out. This time we went to dinner with Samantha Sgherzi, who was the main contact at the agency that rented us the apartment.


Samantha is smart and very fluent in English. She was an excellent resource for us about life in Lecce and about traveling around Salento. She took us to a little known local trattoria in a village called Acaya.


it was very hometown fare, but really felt we were eating with the Italians in their sort of place. Great fun

Last night it was a stop again at Il Portico for a glass of wine and some time with Sylvia. During this time, I managed to catch a moment with Sylvia, the owner, Francesco, and his daughter.

All have been so friendly to us from our first day.

It was then on to Shui for a last meal and some photos of us for their kitchen bulletin board. I am sure we will return for a drink to both places tonight and saying goodbye will be very hard. But the time has come to move on, but the memories of these people will be with always. And, I can see us returning to Lecce to people we now consider good friends. Time will tell.

Thanks to all who have followed along. As I am sure you can tell, we have very much enjoyed our time here, but we are now anxious to return to the people who are even more significant in our lives, our friends at home.

Love,

Ed and Polley

Cortili Aperti in Lecce

Faithful friends and occasional readers,

I am trying to do a little catching up with my reports from abroad. The weather has turned very warm here. Of course, as people are want to do, now they are complaining it is “troppo caldo” – too hot – just as earlier it was all “troppo freddo” – too cold. However, it is very warm with temperatures approaching 90 degrees by mid-afternoon. However, the days are beautiful and we have no complaints.

Last Saturday, under very blue and clear skies, Polley and I joined hundreds of others in town for what is called “Cortili Aperti” – open courtyards. For one day a year, about 28 houses in town open their large courtyard doors and invite the public in to enjoy the architecture and the gardens. It is all free. You pick up a brochure and then follow the map around the historic section of the city.

I am not going to give a lot of commentary, but just leave you to enjoy the photos of both the gardens




and focus on the bright colors of the flowers in bloom




And the courtyards.






It was a lovely day and in some of the places there was music as well. I caught this all flute ensemble in one courtyard as the played Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”


There always seems to be something going on in the town, from a rock concert on the square, to a political speech, to drive by announcements for political candidates. It has been great fun to truly feel a part of the town.

Ed and Polley

Desperately Seeking the Coast

Dear Readers (continued),

Again, I apologize for the delays, but as we wind down our stay in Lecce, the days seem to fill up and time slips away without a blog entry. However, I did promise to talk a little bit more about our travels to Matera.

On day two, we got up and walked around the city as the sun was coming up on Matera. We captured a number of different views of the sassi, these cave cities that were for centuries, the actual town of Matera.
Now they have been modernized and have become chic places in which to live.





However, there are still places where the original caves stand empty.



It was great fun to wander about the maze of streets, occasionally turning a corner and discovering a passageway of “cats”!


Also the flowers are lovely this time of year, and here we found this group of wild flowers just growing out the dirt and stone


This truly is a town we will have to return to in our further adventures in Italy.

Later that day, we headed out to drive to the Tyrrhenian coast. I had the course to the sea all mapped out, when the “helpful” fellow at the front desk told us that my way was going to be very confusing and that we should head south along the Ionian coast and across the toe of the boot to Maratea, a town that we had chosen for lunch.

What we soon discovered was that using his directions there was no way we could reach Maratea for lunch (perhaps not even for dinner or a midnight snack. We drove for three and a half hours and were not even close. Finally, we stopped for something to eat. We just picked this little roadside Trattoria.

It was a little early for lunch (only 12:30) and “Mama” was just cooking up lunch. However, she was delightful and provided us with wine and told us that our Insalata di Mare (Seafood Salad) and our Pesce Griglia (Grilled Fish) would be ready in 15 minutes. 40 minutes later, we sat down to a fabulous meal. Everything was fresh and the grilled fish was all cooked to perfection. While there was no English spoken, she seemed to appreciate our efforts with Italian and our rave reviews of lunch. She consented to a photo to commemorate the occasion.


Then it was back on the road again. Never one to go back the same way, we continued south and then turned east toward the Tyrrhenian coast. It was a beautiful drive, with dramatic mountains and dazzling valleys.



However, because of time, we were only able to drive past the turn off to the coast and never actually get there. We did return via the route I had originally planned and despite the words of the desk clerk, there was nothing “tricky” about it at all. If we had followed the original plans, we would have made it to the coast. Ah, next time, I guess.

We did have a lovely dinner back in Matera. Again, it was a very small, local trattoria, called Ristorante Il Contuccio, where Polley had a delicious mushroom soup, served in a large brioche


while I had a polenta and sausage antipasti


with rabbit to follow.


We returned to our room quite worn out from the day-long drive and just sipped a bit of wine and looked out at Matera at night.

The next day, following breakfast and some good conversation with some Americans who were on a bike tour of the region, we just strolled around town and enjoyed the locals as they sipped caffé and talked. I especially enjoy the groups of old men that gather to jabber the morning away. In our country, they meet at McDonalds, here it is in the shade of an old tree.


About noon, we headed for Lecce, about three and a half hours away. We arrived around 5, with a couple of stops for wine and a bit of lunch. As always, travel days are exhausting, so it was an early evening for both of us.

Ed and Polley

Road to Matera

Readers all,

Time has passed since our last transmission. Good weather, and a established routine is my only excuse. And as I sit here on a Saturday morning, I realize we have only another week before we leave Lecce. It has been interesting to see how our feelings about the place have changed during our time here. Four or five weeks ago, we had pretty much decided that while Lecce is a very pretty town, it was also very quiet and we saw very little reason to need to return. Then as the weather changed around the 1st of May, we thought it might be fun to come back for a visit of a few days. Now, with a week to go, we are contemplating another extended stay. The lifestyle and the people truly ideal. We caught these street singers entertaining us just off the town square.


Our philosophy about our lives andwhat we enjoy about travel have evolved and mellowed. Lecce seems, now, a very good fit.
As we always do, we did acquire a cat friend last week.

As the weather warms, we are more and more leaving the door open. This little neighborhood fellow (actually a she) wandered in and with a little coaxing (and a little food) has been dropping in from time to time.

Tuesday of last week, we left on an extended trip for three days, heading west to the town of Matera and some exploration of the region of Basilicata and northern Calabria (the toe of the boot). Matera had been recommended to us as a “must see.” So, we picked up our little “Smart” car and headed to this famous cave city. It is the location in which Mel Gibson shot “The Passion of Christ.” The parents of our neighbors in Portland, who we visited in Bari last month, said it looked very much like Palestine. I will have to take their word for it.

Matera is about 3 hours west. It is a town of cave dwellings and is one of the most extensive complexes in the Mediterranean as well as one of the oldest inhabited human settlements in the world. These “sassi” were quite successful dwellings up until the 20th century, as Matera became the capital of Basilicata. However, as the population grew, people were forced to live in caves unsuitable for habitation and health issues developed. It got to be so bad that by the mid-1950s half the population lived in cave, sheltering an average of 6 children in each. The infant mortality rate climbed to 50%. Carlo Levy’s impassioned writings about the town revealed the wretched conditions and in the late 1950s, 15,000 inhabitants were moved out of the “sassi.” Ironically, the town’s history of misery, now makes it Basilicata’s leading tourist attraction and the “sassi” are undergoing stylish renovation. Our hotel was part of that restoration.

Polley and I splurged a bit on this hotel (which for me means more than $30 a night!). It is the Hotel Sant Angelo and it sits at the base of huge “sassi.”


All the rooms are actual restored caves.




We were so taken with the place that we ended up staying two nights and using it as our based.

It had a terrific view across to the south end of one “sassi,”


and above the hotel

and we looked across to two churches.

The one is Chiesa di Santa Maria de Idris, which is dug into Munt Errone (also known as the Idris rock).


Below that is Chiesa di Santa Lucia alle Malve

From that location, you can look back up at our hotel and sassi above it.

It is also back up against a deep ravine, Gravina di Matera, their own kind of miniature Grand Canyon.


Very dramatic.

That first night we just walked about town and had a lovely dinner outdoors at the hotel, over-looking the dramatically lit view from just above our terrace.


A very romantic and dramatic first evening. More to come.

Ed and Polley