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
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