Capello Hotel

We flew to Brindisi from Stanstead with Ryan air and then took a bus from the airport to the nearby city of Lecce.
HOTEL
We booked a room by telephone couple of days ago (in Italian!) and thus one was waiting for us on our close to midnight arrival. Cappello is a 2-star hotel but a very adequate one, indeed it was in some ways better than many a 3-star establishment we visited. Our room had vaulted ceilings and a giant gold-framed mirror by the bedside (oh dear!) as well as a reasonably comfy double bed an a nice single bed for our daughter.
The bathroom was small (shower only) but adequate, the room had no air-conditioning but shutters and high ceilings made it very comfortable to sleep in.
There was a fridge with few basic (and very reasonably priced) drinks in the room.
We paid 50 euros per night (no breakfast).
CITY
Refreshed and rested, in the morning on our first day we set off to explore the city. Guide-less and pretty much clue-less we grab a map from the reception and head towards the old town.
Breakfast is had in a café full of locals just outside Porta (Gate) Rudiae and consists of the best (and best value) pastries we have tried during the whole stay . So refreshed we approach the gate – it looks vaguely Baroque but nothing special really. Then we walk through.
Now, Lecce is the one place in Puglia mentioned and usually fairly extensively covered by guidebooks for the whole of Italy. Of the 6 pages devoted on average to Puglia at least one is given to Lecce. It is easy to see why: the extensive, partially walled area of the old town is a furry, flurry and flourish of Baroque architecture, rivalling or maybe even surpassing in its singularity anything that even Rome can offer. The Lecce stonemasons had a specially pliable local stone of warm, pinkish-cream colour to make use of and boy they made use of it.
Maybe 50 meters on the right after Porta Rudiae, Chiesa del Rosario sits in all its glory, one of the best examples of Lecce baroque at the hands of its most famous representative Giuseppe Zimbalo or lo Zingarello (The Gypsy). It comes as a shock, even more so if you arrive from Britain where London’s St Paul’s is considered to be example of the style, but even Rome does not prepare you for the exuberance, ornate ness, sheer folly of Lecce: twisted columns, columns that are covered in carved leaves, facades that heave with ornamentation. In fact, it is ornamental gone mad but somehow, unbelievably, still maintaining grace and beauty. No wonder ‘Lecce Baroque’ is considered to be a distinct sub-category.
The star sights of Lecce would definitely include the aforementioned del Rosario and – further down the main, almost pedestrianised thoroughfare of the old town – the Duomo (cathedral) with nearby Bishop’s Palace and a seminary building enclosing what is in my opinion an impressive but slightly overrated piazza. Duomo’s campanile dominates Lecce’s skyline; its main façade has a strangely restrained, classical look while the side façades are again given to the ornamental flourishes.
Walking further down Via Vittorio Emmanuelle we get to the vast Piazza Sant’Oronzo, with a mix of modern, old and ancient including well-preserved ruins of Roman amphitheatre. Turning left at the bottom of the Piazza takes us to the not-to-be-missed sight of Lecce: basilica Santa Croce, another building in which lo Zingarello had his hand. The lower part of the façade is by another Zimbalo (Antonio) and, while obviously baroquely decorative, it maintains some semblance of stately religious decorum. The top part, though, from the balcony supported by a row of perfectly carved beasts, to the magnificently elaborate rose window, to the curvedly carved, almost scalloped pediment is Lecce Baroque in all its glory again.
Of course, there is more to see in Lecce than these - there are many other churches, palaces, gates, statues and piazzas. The whole area of the old town is perfectly charming and the combination of the local warm-hued stone and the heat of the Mediterranean sun render even slightly grotty alleyways and cul-de-sacs picturesque rather than squalid.
Besides Baroque, Lecce has substantial antique remains, with aforementioned amphitheatre in Piazza Oronzo and another well-preserved theatre tucked away behind the Duomo; there is also a XVIth century castle and a local museum.
Cafes and restaurants abound and if you look further away from the main tourist trial while staying still within the Old Town, you are likely to find places, which are very reasonably priced but still offer good quality. Once we paid 37 euros for a lunch for 4 adults and a child, including beer, pasta, some meat, salad, water and fruit!
People we encountered in Lecce were extremely friendly and very helpful, offering compliments, advice, tissues for a child’s runny nose (how embarrassing!) and homemade ice-cream (how nice!). If you can muster 100 words of Italian (and no grammar - that’s me!) you will manage OK.