Lecce August 3, 2016

Are friends took us to Lecce today. I was so sad that I took so few photos and then I saw that I had taken 58 and that was without going inside one church. Lecce would take a few weeks to properly explore. There are infinite painting possibilities. I would like to spend at least a week there. We only walked around a part of the old town today. Here is a postcard view of Lecce along with some of the food we ate:

We started with the castle. 

Archeological dig in the center of the castle

There always seems to be modern art exhibition in these amazing medieval castles.

Inexplicible

Just ignore the art

Renovated toilet...very nice and airy

These were all over the castle so I cheated and took a picture of a poster. You may pick your favorite.

The Andy Warhol exhibition was interesting and we were the only people. Can you imagine that in NYC?

Lecce is the city of almonds. These little breads filled with almonds and creame are typical of Puglia. 

In rhe center of town there is a Roman amphitheater. Today there was a dinner theater and
 concert stage set up and at Christmas there is a live Nativity scene. 

Really big olive tree also in the center of town.

Nice building

 Lecce is famous for its paper mache. They make huge statues and figures that look like porcelain or marble. These are some of the forms for starting. They are made of straw.

The paper mache artist in his studio. 

Here are the stages of making the paper mache figures. 

More examples of paper mache.

Pretty stuff.

There was an amazing store of hand made books. The papers were amazing and 

also they had many books made with leather. Lecce is know for its leather goods. 

There are many hand made shoes and purses for sale.

Coffee two and small bread things that are typical of Puglia.

View from caffe

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There were quite a few street venders selling interesting stuff. 

 More pretty vistas.

Many churches in southern Italy have tile roofs. 

 This is the restaurant where we had lunch.

Kristen's lunch

Palm trees in town.

Cute horses on the balcony.

And then we had a nap and now we have had dinner and are enjoying our last evening here for this year out on the terrace. Tomorrow is a travel day and then we will be back in CVS on Thursday night.