Stumbling Upon Lecce

Lecce has an advantage that many of the famed destinations we travel far and wide to visit will never possess: the privilege to take you by surprise.

I had never heard of the city of Lecce until the day before I set off on a three day road trip around southern Italy this spring, and while I was more than willing to explore this city unbeknownst to me, I had not the faintest clue that it would steal my heart the way it did. It is one the best kept secrets in southern Italy, a part of the country often unexplored but effortlessly beautiful in every sense. In hindsight I should have known how dear to me Lecce would quickly become; the south of Italy is so easy to fall in love with, and always leaves me with the feeling that it had been expecting my visit all along.

At first, Lecce might feel vaguely familiar, like a cleaner, quieter version of a city you might have visited before; I spent my first hours there trying to pinpoint which one. It is too pristine to be Rome, but shares with it the surviving memory of a distant past, an ancient amphitheatre literally embedded in the fabric of the current city centre. It is not cosmopolitan enough to be Milan, but is just as well kept. It is too distinctly Italian to be Paris or Madrid, but is lit with a similar glow. From the moment I arrived in Lecce at dusk, it felt to me a place of unexpected promise. Perhaps its flawless first impression that initial evening was a result of the fact that it seemed to marry some of the best traits of my favourite cities.

In the morning light, I decided not to compare it to any place I’d been before. I realised that it was in fact distinctly different than any city I’d ever visited. Unlike Paris or Rome, it does not have a well-known name to live up to. It did not come with a preceding reputation to match. One simply does not visit the small city of Lecce with very many expectations. It is not known for grandeur or sparkle or ineffable ambience; and yet it has a little bit of all of the above.

And so Lecce has an advantage that many of the famed destinations we travel far and wide to visit will never possess: the privilege to take you by surprise. This city has the leeway to be completely unfiltered at all times. The experience of visiting is not one of bells or whistles, but one of quiet beauty, of relearning the value of simplicity, of experiencing beauty you’d never have expected and appreciating it as the sum of many small, well-executed details: clean limestone streets, well-groomed piazze, lamplight that never flickers and washes the city in the glow of angels. 

For this, Lecce is spectacular: instead of making an impression upon you by bursting through the gates of your heart, it lets itself in through the back door and takes a seat amongst memories of your most cherished places, as though it had had a spot there all along.

Looking Back on Lecce

A Roman city whose status was demonstrated by the construction of an amphitheatre to seat 25 000, it is plausible to assume that the ancient city of Licea lies beneath Lecce’s more modern cobblestones. The later eras of Lecce’s history are, too, cloaked by its characteristic Baroque architecture; elaborate churches, some of Medieval establishment, and grand monuments, from arches and obelisks to towers and palazzi, make up an ornate city, and speak to a more flamboyant past. Though now its streets are peaceful to stroll down and admire, it is interesting to imagine American soldiers filling the 1940s piazze; once someone told me the city served as a base for the U.S. Air Force during the final years of the Second World War, I could practically hear their boots echoing on the cobblestones.

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