A Town Made of Stone Part 2

This is Part 2, continuing our exploration of Lecce, in south-eastern Italy (the "heel" of the boot). 

           We met some locals who have just opened a delicatessen making and selling hand-rolled pasta, done in the Lecce style. 

Alessio and Emanuela at Pasta d'Elite in Lecce

Here's a quick video showing their technique...

          (In case that link doesn't work, try this one:)

               Hand-rolling pasta at Pasta d'Elite

If you're really into it, here is a longer version of the video. Do try this at home!

Longer version

And speaking of food, here's some local delicacies we've found...

I like the little chickens (pollotto)! Chicken-shaped pastry shells filled with... you guessed it, chicken! And peas. (A chicken-shaped pot pie! Delish.) Directly behind the chickens are spinach pastries, filled with spinach-laced cream sauce. And to the right... ah, the real specialty of Lecce, Rustici (singular Rustco), a pastry filled with mozzarella, bechamel, and a spoonful of tomato sauce. Described by one writer as "If a croissant and a pizza had an even more delicious baby..."
See more local specialties here. I'm particularly keen on the pasticciotto.


Ah, Coffee!!

           Paula and I were doing a bit of exploring the other day. I wanted to sit in a cafe, because we can! In another week the best we'll be able to do is drive someplace to sit inside with an overpriced cup of coffee  (Starbucks, maybe, with their incomprehensible drink names and sizes) and end up paying $5 for an over-roasted something.

Then we saw this sign in front of a cafe (with shaded outdoor tables).

It gives a nice explanation of standard coffee drinks, which differ only in their amounts of steamed milk and foam. I've heard often enough that coffee with milk (any form of milk) is totally unacceptable in italy after breakfast, but clearly this place caters to a more, ah, accepting crowd. It emboldened us to ask the waiter for a cappuccino (at 1:15 in the afternoon!). He readily seated us. But before leaving to fill our order, Paula asked, "Italians don't drink cappuccinos after 10 in the morning, do they!"

"No," he agreed. "But you're Americans, so it's OK!"

Two excellent cappuccinos and two pasticciotti later the cost was... $5

This sign seems to sum up coffee in Italy: "tiny sips of great pleasure"

Take a Walk on the Dead Side

We took a walk through the near-by cemetery and found some extraordinary examples of funerary art and architecture. Not as famous – nor as well shaded – as Pere Lachaise in Paris, it does have some family mausoleums that put those in Paris to shame.

For starters, here's the entry gate

There's not a lot of shaded alleyways, but there is this!

THe mausoleum of some ambitious family; looks like a church in town!

There must be an explanation for the Egyptian theme but I'm clueless

Death head locks on the crypt. How cool is that?!

Small, but one of my favorites. It's wired for electricity, too...

We Celebrate Republic Day

And finally, we come to Republic Day, celebrating the day in 1946 when Italy ousted their monarchy (think: Italian 4^th of July). We observed the holiday by going to an evening concert at Divineria, a small local wine bar. It was a great, thoroughly enjoyable evening even though there was only one song we recognized…

                                   Click here if the link won't work

On the Road Again

Our time in Lecce -- and in Europe -- draws to a close. Saturday morning we will once more be out early, trailing our luggage across the cobblestones to the bus, to the airport, to Milano. More exactly, to Ferno, the small town that serves the Milan-Malpensa Airport. We'll spend a couple of nights at a BnB where we've stayed before, run by a  generous and welcoming family. (Shameless plug: Il Gelsomino B and B). We'll get a car and maybe drive to the lake (Lago Maggiore; Lago di Como; one of those).

Then on Monday we fly to Boston, and meet up with Paula's brother. We'll visit with him and his family (and the four grandkids!) for a week before, finally, coming back to home in Los Osos, CA.


           A Parting Shot

I came around a corner in Lecce and saw this archway

Final note: We're now at our favorite BnB in Ferno, a small town near the Malpensa airport, aobut an hour west of Milan. Monday we fly out to Boston, at 6:30 in the AM, which means dropping off the car at 4AM. Groan! But today, Sunday, we'll explore the lakes, Como and a few others, just north of here.

See you soon!

Click here for our interactive travel map