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Part two of my travels in Italy guide takes us on a journey to Lecce, Italys furthest city in the southernmost heal of its boot, via the beautiful fishing town of Monopoli and along to the award winning coastline of the Salento. If you have read part one then you will know that we were looking for somewhere beautiful that Italians themselves holidayed, and without breaking the bank. Having spent The first part of our holiday in Matera and then the surrounding countryside we began our journey to Lecce. This was the longest part of our journey (since we chose to fly back home via Brindisi from Lecce), and if you don’t have a car travelling at weekends can take up to four hours! Looking at the transport maps I had an idea we would hop off the train from Bari to Lecce at either Pogliano di Mare or Monopoli on the way, but knowing that Monopoli is under a 90 minute drive from Matera (which we would have had to get a cab back into anyway) we decided that by the time we’d accounted for transport fares and a cab to Matera we would treat ourselves to a taxi.
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Monopoli
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We chose Monopoli as it had been on our list since our last visit to Puglia, but thanks to some bank holiday traffic for the coastline we got to take in the pretty beach resort of Pogliana di Mare via a detour the cab driver took. Monopoli is a small fishing port with a castle looking over the sea and several buildings in the main port which look like Venetian waterside palazzos. It was busy, as with all places popular for daytripping, but as in Basilicata it was Italian voices you heard enjoying the town. Along winding streets that prettily invite you to get lost within for a few hours and a beach spot made up of rocks (which my son and I found perfect for sitting on looking out to sea whilst dipping our toes in the water to cool off from the afternoon sun), Monopoli is a perfect town for a short visit. It also has pretty light installations dotted throughout its central sites in the summer season, so if you make it there in the evening I’m sure you’d be rewarded.
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Lecce
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We hopped back on the train, passing the endless olive groves I remember from our last trip near Fasano, and onto our base for the last leg of our trip in Lecce. Arriving in Lecce to to the relief of rain was wonderful, particularly since Puglia at the southern point of Italy is rarely known for rain. Lecce is affectionately known as the Florence of the South, and it has been on my list for over 15 years since I saw an episode of Grand Designs in this region with Kevin Mcloud standing outside the baroque magnificence of the Basilica Santa Maria. There are churches on every corner, Ted enjoyed the theatre of the ones we looked inside, of this rough and ready city bustling with life and inspiration. We booked a lovely apartment here with Airbnb in a very old building overlooking a square, pizza in the evening on the rooftop terrace whilst listening to sounds from the local jazz club was an unforgettable part of our trip. We loved wandering the streets of this city without guide book or phone reception and following our noses where they took us and as ever with cities built largely during the Renaissance I can’t help but look out for ornate door knockers on incredible oversized doorways. Ted loved the Roman amphitheatre, I loved Basilica Santa Maria, and we both loved the cakes in Caffe Alvino – a Lecce institution. You can commonly get great pizza very cheaply in this city but we particularly rated Ciro. For something a little more special, and tonnes of atmosphere, try Doppiozero, it gets pretty busy but the food and cocktails are lovely. For shopping I came across a home textiles store I really loved, Society Limonta stock a beautiful range of linens all made from natural materials in designs ranging from minimalist to modern and floral rustic.
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Torre dell’Orso
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And so to our final destination – the seaside. The coastal resorts of the Salento just outside Lecce are award winning and renowned for their incredible beauty. If you are looking for the Italian Maldives then Pescoluse is your answer (it looks incredible), there’s the pretty seaside town of Otranto with a castle overlooking the water, or the scene often seen in guidebooks of beautiful Galipoli, with many inbetween. The choice is a little overwhelming and if I’m honest I wished we had a car for this leg of the journey so that we could have hopped off at many of these spots.
The part of the coast we chose was the beaches of Torre dell’Orso which lead via a protected woodland walk up onto cliffs where you can view the stunning fraglioni of Torre Sant Andrea likened to Thailand in its natural beauty. All of these parts of Puglia are where Italians like to spend time unwinding by the sea, and on a bank holiday Monday in August (Feragusto) you can expect it to be packed. We got the 8.30am bus from Lecce at Via Don Bosco arriving just after 9am and the beach was easily the busiest I have ever seen. A vista of people like so many ants in the sand, people were in the water (which was already mild early in the morning) purely because the beaches had no space. I say this as a caution if it matters to you, the seascape here is just stunning, you are only a short swim from beautiful grottos (we missed these) such as Poets Cave, but whilst I’m sure it is even more beautiful out of season and the beach is quieter, we really loved the hustle and bustle of bank holiday life on the Italian riviera. My son and I headed down to the beach twice, leaving my husband in charge of phones and bags, to read a book in the shade of a cafe (he’s not much of a one for beaches). We adored the crystal clear waters, spotting sardines and crabs amongst our fellow swimmers, and watching the theatre of who feels brave enough to jump from the craggy rocks that surround the beach (not everyone is as brave as they think, Mr Blue (so named after his swim trunks) spent an hour trying to psyche himself up to the jump with various words of encouragement and countdowns from the water in Italian before embarking on the equally precarious climb back down. After a beautiful Frutti di Mare lunch we all headed down to the woodlands at the further end of the beach. A walk of 30-45 minutes will lead you up onto the cliffs at the far end of the beach where you can look down upon the beach and the first fraglioni. It was a breathtakingly beautiful view which my son and I didn’t want to leave. You can walk on further to see the whole collection of natural rock formations of Torre Sant Andrea on the other side, I wish we had, but I was very conscious that we had left daddy behind with a bad leg some way back and I had no phone reception (this was particular to me as I had problems for the whole trip but my husband didn’t). After another swim in the afternoon we left to catch the bus back to Lecce. The bus stop that takes you back is unmarked and a little tricky to find, also the buses come with a frequency of every few hours so it’s definitely a good idea to plan your journey back ahead of time.
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We all loved our trip to Italy, Matera was my sons highlight (see part one), Lecce my husbands, and Torre dell’Orso mine. It was the perfect holiday combining cities, countryside and coastal towns, especially after the long lockdowns of 2020-21. And if you are looking for a holiday which is relatively inexpensive, where you can get lost in the culture of a country hearing relatively few English words, and be stopped in your tracks by beauty, both natural and built, then a visit to this part of the world is a true treasure. If I could extend the 10 days to a fortnight I would have loved to have popped back to the countryside of Fasano inbetween.
Eating
Caffe Alvino
Ciro Pizza
Doppiozero
Shopping
Sleeping
