Fall in love with Lecce

At the close of day in this southern Italian city, the sinking sun imbues the old stone buildings with a warm golden glow.

For anyone who has ever chased the light — director, painter, writer, photographer — Lecce is where you’ll always find it.

Nestled far down on the heel of Italy’s boot, this exquisite city in Puglia offers the kind of astounding art and architecture and amazing food and wine you can find in larger, more touristy Italian cities, at a lower cost and without the large crowds.

My husband and I first visited in 2024 and have returned every year since. Wanting to escape some of our long Canadian winter, we picked the region of Puglia because we love Italy and wanted to go someplace we had never been.

We chose Lecce (pronounced LEH-cheh) for the awe-inspiring baroque architecture we saw from our research online, and it does not disappoint. In many ways, photographs don’t do this glorious city justice.

A fast train (five to six hours) from Rome brings you to Lecce station, from which you can get a taxi or walk to any destination in the heart of the old city.

Labyrinthine streets

The winding cobblestone streets may seem labyrinthine at first, but after a day or so of letting yourself wander without a map, you’ll find your bearings. Let the campanile, or bell tower, in the Piazza del Duomo be your guide, as it looms over the rooftops and is easy to keep in sight as you wander through the streets, lured into small shops by colourful displays of ceramics, leather works, olive wood, textiles or cartapesta, the incredible papier-mâché for which Lecce is known.

If shopping’s not your thing, this vibrant city (with around 95,000 people and home to the University of Salento) is a perfect place to relax. Cafés, bistros and ristorantes abound, many with outdoor seating, where you can enjoy an apertivo and a snack against a backdrop of a magnificent church or Roman amphitheatre (Lecce has scores of the former and two of the latter).

Spritzes are popular — and not just of the Aperol variety. Consider Limoncino, Campari or Hugo (with elderflower cordial), paired with a simple trio of olives, nuts and taralli (ring-shaped crackers made with olive oil and wine and flavoured with savoury ingredients such as fennel seeds, black olives or sun dried tomatoes, as well as sugar and spices if you’d rather enjoy them with coffee.)

Of course, there’s also birra alla spina (craft beer on tap) and an abundance of wines worth savouring. Puglia is wine country, and we enjoyed local Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Primitivo as well as new (to us) red grapes like Negoramaro, Nero di Troia and Sususmaniello, and whites like Bombino Bianco and Bianco d’Alessano.

Now back in Canada, where wine prices have been steadily increasing, it pains me to write that at a grocery store in Lecce, you can buy three good bottles of wine for under 15 euros — the price of one at home.

Mangia, mangia

The city is heaven for food lovers, too, and you don’t need to be rich to eat well. From inexpensive street food to fine dining, there are options for every budget and appetite.

On a side street, at Il Pizzicotto, there is artisanal pizza by the slice, made daily from local ingredients — prosciutto, satiny mushrooms, arugula, tomatoes, zucchini, melty cheese — and priced by weight.

At Miro Wine & Lounge, with its gorgeous vaulted ceilings of Lecce stone, I had Mexican chicken wings (yes, Mexican wings; I’d had them before and knew how good they were — these aren’t your generic sports bar buffalo wings) with grilled eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and peppers, while my husband had a beef burger (minus the bun, as is often the style) with roasted potatoes and salad, along with some excellent rustic bread which we dipped in the local virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The ambiance and service were superb, as was the wine list.

On our penultimate night — we were there from mid-February to mid-March this year — we returned to one of our favourite restaurants, I Latini, where we enjoyed an appetizer of cod in light tempura batter (I’m a Newfoundlander and couldn’t resist) and intriguingly spiced tender lamb chops with roasted potatoes, served on slabs of grey slate, paired with a bottle of luscious ruby red Susumaniello.

If you have a sweet tooth, there are enough luscious desserts and mouthwatering pastries in Lecce to make your head spin, not to mention the gelato. But let’s talk about gelato — for three euros you can get two scoops in a waffle cone, and often you can sample flavours before you commit. I still dream of the fresh ricotta and fig, the chocolate and rum, the salted pistachio and the pasticciotto — the latter made with Lecce’s signature pastry filled with rich custard cream.

Fortunately, Lecce’s streets are so inviting and its buildings so ornate, that it’s a very walkable city (if mobility is not an issue) and you can burn quite a few calories meandering through its winding avenues, admiring delightful details at every turn. There are angels in the architecture and elegant balconies galore.

But perhaps what’s most magical about this city is the warmth of the people and the abundance of whimsy. We once saw a funky band featuring tubas, drums and accordions lead a student tour group down the street to the sound of Chicago’s I’m a Man.

On another day, four men wrangled an ancient-looking amphora past us as we walked toward one of the three imposing gates of the city.

In the spring, when the swifts return to the main piazza, you can sip wine and watch them swoop and dart after insects while Sant’Oronzo commands the pinkish sky from atop his ancient column, as nearby, a busker summons Leonard Cohen with a heartfelt Hallelujah.

If you visit, remember to give yourself enough time here — Lecce is meant to be discovered and savoured. At the end of your trip, you just might find yourself not wanting to leave.

Pam Frampton is a columnist for the Free Press.