Lent – ​​a carnival of stone

We leave Bari by early morning train. First the Adriatic coast passes in front of us. Then the train enters the plains away from the sea. Southern Italy under the sun – olive groves, red soil, slightly dilapidated stations in towns I've never heard of.

Last Sunday we ventured deep south when we visited Matera. This time our destination is at a similar latitude, but on the map it looks different, as the city of Lecce is located in the middle of the heel of Italy's boot, on the Salento peninsula that separates the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.

We arrive in Lecce early enough for the sun to caress the back of our necks and we don't have to seek refuge in the shade. We walk about ten minutes from the station to the old town.

We quickly realize that this will be a walk full of pauses, because we cannot resist the call of harmonious buildings. We stop at the entrance to the courtyard of the former Franciscan monastery from the 13th century, on whose foundations the complex before us was built in the 18th century. It served as a gymnasium named after the most famous economist this city produced, Giuseppe Palmieri. There is also a significant library. We would have liked to have a refreshment in the café next to the library, but a magical city awaits us.

A little further on, we enter a tangle of alleys that leads us to the heart of the city known by the nickname "Florence of the South". How did Lecce earn this flattering title? Its unique Baroque buildings. Of course, Baroque is an international phenomenon and there are many cities that are proud of such an architectural heritage. Whoever has been to Lesser Town or stood on Charles Bridge in Prague, who has jostles with worldly tourists to take photos of the Trevi Fountain in Rome or has walked around Vienna, wandered around Valletta, has seen enough Baroque. But not like this.

SOFT STONE LENS

During the 16th and 17th centuries, under Spanish rule, Lecce was transformed into one of the most important cultural and artistic centers of southern Italy. But nature also helped. The local golden-yellow limestone is extremely soft and pliable when it is first quarried. Local sculptors and architects could carve it as if they were working with wax or wood. Later, the stone would harden in contact with air and become extremely resistant.

That explains this play of sunlight on the blossoming, pastel facades. We headed first to the place that is the pinnacle of Lecce Baroque, as art historians call this local variant: the Celestine Palace.

This building once belonged to the Celestine monastic order, and was built on this site together with the cathedral because the king needed their old land for fortifications. The signatures of the artists who decorated the facade include two stars of the Lecce Baroque – Giuseppe Zimbalo began the work, and his student Giuseppe Cino completed it.

The Baroque boom in Catholic countries was, among other things, an aesthetic reaction of the church and the authorities to the emergence of Protestant teachings – the danger of the Catholic clergy losing their monopoly on the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures forced them, together with the nobility, to loosen their purse strings. Artists knew how to use this as a gift from God. I don't know how much it helped to bring the amazed faithful back to the churches, but as a result, Lecce became a true sanctuary of Baroque art.

Walking through a city with a population of about a hundred thousand, we find evidence on every corner that we are in an exceptional place. Although it is located ten kilometers from the coast, many tourists are already flocking to it. They have come, like us, to see how much truth there is in the marketing praises of the city that can be read on the websites of agencies and tourist bureaus.

COFFEE TREATMENT

On a quiet, side street, we came across a cafe that would host us for the next hour. The city is best experienced in those moments. From the cafe's garden, you watch people going to work. They stop to say hello. They gesture and laugh. And then a local specialty, once drunk only here and nowhere else – caffe lecheze – arrives on the table.

First, coffee with ice and a slice of lemon – caffe del tiempo – arrived in Lecce from Valencia, Spain, via the port of Otranto at the beginning of the 17th century. At that time, ice was a luxury in southern Italy. It was collected in the mountains in winter and stored in special underground chambers. During the summer, it was crushed into small pieces to cool the drinks of the nobility and merchants. But the Arabs also come into the story, their gastronomic trace in southern Italy, where they brought almond seedlings. Regular sugar dissolves poorly in a cold drink. But almond milk syrup as a sweetener gives this drink, which my palate is getting used to, a truly original tone. Caffe Lecce as we know it today began its triumphant march on Italy and the world about 70 years ago thanks to the standardization of the recipe attributed to local restaurateur Antonio Quarti. It certainly deserves at least a commemorative plaque in the city.

It is time to continue our walk through the historic center, which, having awakened, is slowly turning into an anthill. We go out to the Piazza San Oronzo. In Roman times, the city was called Luppie. Oronzo was a patrician in the first century AD. According to tradition, he was converted to Christianity by Saint Paul, after which Oronzo became the first bishop of the city, and then suffered as a martyr under Emperor Nero. When the plague ravaged Apulia in 1656, Lecce was miraculously spared. The citizens attributed this to Saint Oronzo. As a sign of gratitude, an original Roman column was erected, topped with a bronze statue of the saint. The column was brought by the grateful inhabitants of Lecce from Brindisi, where it marked the end of the Appian Way.

The Roman Amphitheater, in front of which stands the Column of Oronzo in the Baroque city, seems like an artifact of a completely different civilization. It was long forgotten and buried. It was only rediscovered in 1901 when the foundations for a bank building were being dug. It was built in the 2nd century AD, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. It could accommodate between 12.000 and 25.000 spectators who came to watch the fights of gladiators and wild beasts. Since historically important Baroque buildings and churches stand above it and could not be demolished, only half of the amphitheater is visible today, while the rest is still underground.

VESELA TUGA TOO

It's time to move on. We pass by significant buildings, but we don't stop at every one. In towns like this, I sometimes like the ordinary scenes from the streets best.

In fact, this yellowish stone and the sun, in a strange way, slow down the traveler's internal clock. The weather in the south demands slowness. Vittorio Bodini, the greatest poet of Lecce and Salento, who lived and died in the last century, knew this. Bodini was also a master translator of Spanish literature. He knew his city and loved it with an almost desperate love. He once said that the streets of Lecce, their smells and "joyful sadness" entered his blood.

This poet speaks in a language I understand. He explains to me what I feel as I walk around the city, and I still don't know how to name it. Yes, a joyful sadness. It's as if Dvorniković wrote it about Balkan music.

Bodini once wrote that Lecce was actually an unexpected incident in the south: "As we go deeper into this city which alone occupies the entire heel of Italy, we are convinced that nothing on our journey through the South had prepared us for such an encounter, so different is it from any other place that has preceded it. We find ourselves in the womb of the seventeenth century."

And the center of this womb is the square with the Basilica of the Holy Cross and its bell tower, about seventy meters high. The facade of the church was worked on for more than a hundred years, and was completed in 1679. In fact, it is a biblical and historical comic strip carved into stone. The combination of religious and secular motifs, including depictions of the Battle of Lepanto, is not so much captivating because of what the artists told us, because it moves within the corridors set by the clients – wealthy clergy and rich patricians. As with all true art, the scene fascinates us with the way in which the artists told the story of the city on the facades. Calligraphy in stone. The entire Square was built in this spirit. It was originally conceived as a huge courtyard. In the past, the gates of the square were closed at night to protect the cathedral, bell tower and bishop's palace from thieves, robbers and other uninvited guests.

WILD STRAWBERRIES AND SWEET BRLJOTINA

From this square we go to the newer part of the city. Parks where it is worth taking a break. For example, Garibaldi's Park. Monuments that tell of the famous members of Young Italy, who experienced prison, exile, in order to see the realization of their dream – the unification of Italy.

Sigismondo Castromediano is one of them – a nobleman of Norman origin who became a revolutionary. Because of his exceptional moral purity and generosity, he was remembered by the people under the nickname “The White Duke”. He served 11 years in prison for his beliefs. After unification, he turned to literature and archaeology – he founded the city’s archaeological museum, the first of its kind in Apulia. We pass by the opera house built by the Greco family, then by the Apollo Theater, a modern concert and theater stage. We cross Mazzini Square, which is the center of city life outside the historic center. Hunger leads us to the restaurant we have chosen because it is outside the tourist zone. Turnip greens – turnip top, is not a name that promises a fence. That is its advantage.

We spend the next two hours there, drinking Versante Rosato Negroamaro, an excellent local winery, and eating a perfect pizza. Negroamaro is an indigenous black grape variety from Puglia. The name of the variety literally means “black-bitter”, but when it is made into a rosé, it gives incredibly fruity and fresh results. Thanks to this choice, Lecce will also be remembered for the aromas of wild strawberries, raspberries and cherries embedded in the taste of the Apulian wine.

Refreshed and somewhat surprised by the moderate prices in southern Italy – both Montenegro and Greece are more expensive, not to mention Croatia – we take a leisurely walk back towards the old town. We stop here and there by the shop windows, as this part of town is geared towards shopping.

On a recommendation, we enter a pastry shop that is well-known in the city. We look for the most famous sweet – pasticcioto lecheze. But we have no luck – that treat burns like a halva. Not a single copy for curious travelers.

A little further on, near the fortress and castle of Charles V, the most powerful European of the 16th century, we found a café with a garden in deep shade. There we got our cookie and another Lecèze coffee.

According to local legend, 280 years ago, pastry chef Nikola Askalone didn't want to throw away the leftover ingredients from a large cake – a little dough and a little pastry cream. He quickly folded an oval cookie. He wasn't thrilled with the look, so he called it Typical Italian cake with custard cream filling – which on the one hand means pâté, but in everyday speech it means failure, bljotina. When the first customer tried the warm “bljotina” he was enchanted, and the most famous sweet of this region was born.

Opposite the restaurant's garden, in front of the walls that defended the city from Ottoman invasions, there is a fountain with the sculpture Harmony. People here call it the Fountain of Lovers.

DUČE, WATER AND LOVE

The sculpture was created in 1927 by a local sculptor from Lecce, Antonio Macota. The occasion was to celebrate the completion of the Apulian Aqueduct and the arrival of drinking water from the Sella River to the previously dry Lecce. Benito Mussolini also attended the inauguration ceremony.

The bronze sculpture depicts a naked young man and a girl. They hold a shell with their intertwined hands from which they drink water. Italy in the 1920s was so conservative that the local people were bothered by the nudity of Adam and Eve. Later, this work became one of the most frequently photographed motifs in Lecce.

After our experience with sweet brljotina, we needed a walk. On our previous tour of the city, we skipped a place worth seeing – the Roman Theater. While the amphitheater offered bloody entertainment for the masses, the venue hosted more refined performances for 4.000 spectators, who loved dramas and comedies.

Once again, we are presented with an incredible contrast between antiquity and the Baroque. Vittorio Bodini saw in the flourishing of the Baroque cloak over the city's facades an expression of the southern fear of empty space.

Every void in life, every bare surface, must be filled with a burgeoning life, with an abundance of details, in order to more easily bear one's own finitude.

Or, as Bodini says in verse about Lecce:

Carnival of stone

in a thousand ways it imitates infinity.