Lecce and Beyond

Here we are in Sunny Lecce, in our favorite cafe Alvinos, on the square overlooking some of the amazing baroque architecture.
Here we are seen enjoying a coffee and something sweet with Enrico and Maria. We have parked up for a few days and are staying in Enrico's lovely house on the outskirts of Lecce.

 Enrico and I in yet another coffee bar - even more Sicilian than the Alvinos (even Enrico says that Sicily makes the best cakes, since he comes from the undisputed 'top place' in the world for everything - Naples, that is saying something).

That Friday night Cathy was feeling tired and 'toothy' so Enrico and I went to see his Universities open evening which was crowded with students and people from the town - lots of interesting research projects.

Saturday was a lazy day wondering around Lecce, having a bite and taking it easy.

On Sunday we set off, with typical alacrity after coffee and something sweet to the Seaside in Otranto.

Both Cathy and I went for a swim in the warm sea, but as this was the start of October, much too cold for our Italian friends. On the right of the photo you can see a white square building sticking into the sea - this was where we had a wonderful seafood lunch a few years before with Debbie and Nev.
This time we just managed to get the last serving at three in the afternoon and had a nice seafood and pasta in a typically Italian restaurant with friendly staff and family wandering about.

Monday we returned to the van and set off to Matera - one of our favorite spots. The old town has tiny stepped alleyways over the side of the hill with many of the older houses dug into the cliffs.

We even spotted a place for a camper van, but not sure if this was serious, perched on the top of a set of steps. We had parked in a municipal car park across town (very crowded in Matera, one of the few places we were exposed to large tour parties). The nice man who came to collect the parking fee gave us a map and instructions on how to navigate the best route. We often found very helpful people when you might have expected a 'right jobs worth', only a few exceptions where we found that we were probably asking for things that were out of the ordinary and hence lack of understanding, rather than indifference.
We had coffee ice cream and 'Nun's Breasts'  a sort of light cake with an obvious shape.

That night we parked on the opposite side of the big valley, in the old style farm site on a national park. a short walk in the morning gave us the great view of Matera as well as lovely flowers (some still blooming even in October) and the limestone cliffs.

In honor of Cathy's mum we walked up to the ancient bronze age hill top settlement and saw some interesting dolmen / holes in the ground.














Next day we set off for another ancient spot, Paestum, a bit south of Naples and one of best places to see a Greek (they got there first) temple complex. Part of the original 'Grand Tour' and strongly influencing architecture to this day.

I found a mini temple that was more my height - actually the shrine to the founders. We nearly had the whole place to ourselves and a few other tourists - no sign of the large coach parties. Paestum seems to be very quiet despite having world class artifacts. The attached museum was fascinating with detailed images on Geek / Roman pots as well as bronze urns that looked like high class 18th Century but were actually 600BC.

Detail of a bronze urn with a lion handle that was 'peaking' into the pot.
















Paestum is also a centre for Mozzarella, which means buffaloes and great cheese. The only problem was that everything the small town near the archeological site was closing for winter - we managed to get a few things from a small supermarket and had our own Mozarella feast on board

We now had to dash up to Tivoli (near Rome) as we wanted to catch the weather and avoid the weekend. That day we wandered around the natural wonder of an 18th Century garden based around waterfalls and a valley.

Lunch in the street in Tivoli. Great porketta and beer.

 We found some of the usual, interesting hazard signs ( I'll put a full selection into another posting). And we also found some evidence of coppicing -- or at least tree management. Apparently this wonderful spot had been a rubbish tip for most of the 20th Century and only recently been cleaned up for visitors again.

 We parked up in the corner of a busy car park and next morning were some of the first into the gardens. The waterfalls and rocks were part of the 'Grand Tour' and a favorite of the romantic poets. I can just imagine Keats or Byron marveling at the sights.












Next day was the Tivoli gardens. Fantastic waterfalls and formal setting in a surprising small setting. We pretty much had the place to ourselves apart from a school party who spent most of their time in the exotically decorated palace.

Here is are a couple of short videos of the waterfalls, at the time it was the sound of the water that was most attractive - not sure how that will reproduce.

Could not resist a silly pose.After our visit we headed off to the hills, literally, and after a typically 'twisty turny bumpy' road were rewarded with a quite spot to rest the night.