Lecce

Blog 6

Spring has been announced by the Italian media.  The weather forecast is delivered by a military chap in full uniform including medals for his services to meteorology.  The forecast is normally vague, and inconsistent with other sources.  But they are right in that it is a bit warmer and we’ve seen the odd swallow and martin and today gangs of screeching swifts, which remind us of mid-summer Stillington and Tring, walking to the Bay Horse and Kings Arms respectively being buzzed by them showing off around us.

We’ve been to a few more towns around Ostuni, Taranto (so named ‘cos it’s famous for a dance that was performed as treatment for fever which is based on the effects of a bite from a Tarantula spider .. beggars belief doesn’t it).  Great castle, ruined old city and massive steelworks on the edge of town, I counted 5 blast furnaces, probably more than the whole of the UK put together.

Blog 6 a

Francaville was very nice, although we have seen a lot of Baroque churches, so we’re harder to impress now.  By way of a refreshing change they had a well-kept Norman castle.

Blog 6 b

Lecce is the capitol of Baroque; a very picturesque place, and the place where the Apian way comes to an end (not in Apia as I expected it to be) which is marked by a column to St Oronzo, who saved the town from the Plague when those towns with less effective patron saints were decimated by it.  Realizing they were onto a good thing with Oronzo they immediately ditched St Irene, the incumbent patron saint.  Seems to be quite a competitive occupation being a patron saint, one plague, an outbreak of boils, or a few poor harvests and you’ll find yourself down the job centre.