Lecce stone is soft when quarried and hardens in the air: on this geological gift grew the Lecce Baroque, the explosion of embroidered façades that earned the city its "Florence of the South" label. Santa Croce is the manifesto, but the game is to look up everywhere; below, half a Roman amphitheatre surfaces in Piazza Sant'Oronzo.
Papier-mâché is the city's other craft, and its workshops persist. Daily ritual: iced coffee with almond milk and a warm pasticciotto pastry. From here Salento splits in two: Adriatic on one side, Ionian on the other, never more than half an hour away.
Near Lecce
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
