Living up to the billing of the Florence of the South seems a preposterously high bar for any city to meet.
Synonymous with history, art, stunning architecture and tremendous food, the Tuscan capital is one of the most-visited cities in the world.
And yet, despite effectively ticking off every box on the list, Lecce successfully managed to remain one of Italy’s best-kept secrets.
Eager to find out whether the city was deserving of its reputation, Destination Calcio embarked on a trip to Salento.
After all, what better way to see whether the Florence of the South was the real deal than visiting it on the same weekend it welcomed a team from Florence?
Nestled on the heel of the Italian Peninsula, Lecce is easily reachable from Britain if you fly into Brindisi airport, which is approximately a 45-minute drive away.
Flights, however, are scaled back outside of summer, therefore flying into Bari may be your best option. The city’s Palese airport is about a two-hour drive from Lecce, while the train takes approximately the same time.
You can hop on the train at Bari airport and then change at Bari Centrale for your service to Lecce.
With Destination Calcio already in Bari, we decided to make the most of our hired car and drive down.
With no games to attend on the Saturday – a rarity so far this season – we opted for a brief detour via Polignano A Mare. Located roughly halfway between Bari and Lecce, Polignano feels decidedly more touristy than the former, but still manages to retain a unique charm.
With its breathtaking steep cliffs overlooking the sea and narrow winding alleys, one almost gets the feeling of being around the Cinque Terre, rather than on the heel of Italy.
From there it was back in the car and onto Lecce, which greeted us with biblical rain – regular readers of Calcio Weekender will know that extreme weather is par for the course on these trips.
Mercifully, our Airbnb was located just five minutes away from our car park allowing us to avoid most of the downpour.
Given Italians’ propensity for seemingly driving even the shortest of distances, underground car parks are useful options to avoid wasting valuable time in the hope of finding a spot.
With the rain eventually relenting by 6pm, we headed out to explore Lecce’s old town and had barely made it out of the door by the time we stumbled on Saloon Keeper.
Located a stone’s throw from our digs in Piazzetta Chiesa Greca, this New York-style speakeasy bar feels like a time capsule back to the prohibition era.
It felt the ideal spot to treat ourselves to a drink and watch the world go by, as the rain left behind a cool autumn evening.
At €10 for an Old Fashioned Saloon Keeper is at the higher end of the scale in terms of prices in Italy, but felt positively cheap compared to drinking in London.
From there we moved deeper into the old town, which was bustling with locals and visitors alike out for their aperitivos and dinner.
Lecce’s rich baroque history and its culinary delicacies – wine and olive oil among them – have turned the Florence of the South into an increasingly popular tourist destination.
And yet, it never feels particularly busy. What’s more, Lecce’s traditional limestone buildings give the streets a very cosy vibe under the lights.
Our wandering took us past Lecce’ Roman amphitheatre and onto the main square, where we decided it was time for a pizza and stopped at Antica Pizzeria Da Michele.
Three pizzas and a glass of red each later – which set us back a very reasonable €50 combined – we resumed our walks through Lecce’s old town, where ancient Roman ruins, stunning buildings and spectacular piazzas take it in turns to take your breath away.
The evening ended where it had started, with a nightcap at Saloon Keeper, before heading back to our digs.
The following morning sunshine had replaced the rain and we headed to SouthEast Cafe for a spot of breakfast. Located just off Piazzetta Chiesa Greca, it offers generous croissants and breakfast pastries, fresh orange juice and some tremendous coffee.
Three croissants, three macchiatos and three cappuccinos, plus an orange set us back €21 and there was then just enough time to wander through the old town a bit longer, before heading to the Stadio Via del Mare for Lecce’s clash with Fiorentina.
Located on Lecce’s north-eastern edge, the ground is about a 10-minute drive from the old town.
And it is, admittedly, quite the contrast with its stunning limestone buildings.
Built in 1966 to replace the old Stadio Carlo Pranzo, Via del Mare last underwent a complete overhaul in 1985 to mark Lecce’s maiden promotion to Serie A.
The ground was overlooked in the run-up to Italia ‘90 and capacity has been almost halved to 29,000.
Dated as it may look from the outside, Via del Mare remains an imposing ground by Serie A standards and Lecce have sold a record 21,000 season tickets this season.
Some of them may be swiftly returned following Sunday’s calamitous 6-0 evisceration against Fiorentina, which left Luca Gotti’s men second-bottom in Serie A with just five points after nine matches
“Next season, we’re going to be back on Saturday,” came the ironic refrain from the Lecce ultras in the Curva Nord in the second half, a thinly-veiled suggestion the Giallorossi may struggle to avoid relegation this season. Saturday is the day most of Serie B fixtures are played.
In the post-match press conference, which began 90 minutes later than scheduled, Gotti acknowledged avoiding relegation for a third consecutive season – something the Giallorossi have never managed – was a tall order but remained defiant in the face of adversity.
We left Via del Mare – as Gotti may well do soon – and drove to Ostuni, our overnight stop and one of Apulia’s main tourists attractions.
Commonly referred to as the White Town for its white walls and its typically white-painted architecture, Ostuni’s old town effectively consists of a citadel built on top of a hill and fortified by ancient walls.
Arriving there at 8pm meant we couldn’t really appreciate the panorama until the following day, but we did at least have time to treat ourselves to some delicious orecchiette at the Antica Locanda restaurant in the old town.
Better still, we had time to watch most of Inter Milan’s 1-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico against Roma, which proved to be the perfect nightcap for us all.
Come Monday morning, we bid goodbye to Ostuni via the by-now-obligatory trifecta of cappuccinos, croissants and fresh orange juice and drove back to Bari to fly home.
Whether you are a foodie, a calcio lover of simply want to take in history and architecture without being swamped by tourists, Lecce may just be the place for you.
You can read about our previous trips to Milan and Bergamo, Bologna, Como and Monza, Genova, Campania and the Northern regions, as well as our excursions to Padova and Udine.
There is no better way to spend your weekends as long as the destination is calcio.
