We ventured out into Lecce, the old city, today. This historic city of 96,000 residents, is also nicknamed the "Florence of the South" because of its rich baroque architectural monuments found in the city. It is also known for its "Lecce stone" - a particular kind of limestone which is one of the city's main exports. This stone is very soft and workable, thus suitable for sculptures. The many church fronts we saw today have a lot of detailed sculpture work which we assume is made of this limestone.

Lecce is also an important agricultural center, chiefly for its olive oil and wine production, which we expect to try much of, in the coming days!!

We will be going on a self-guided tour hosted by Salento Bici Tour company later this week. So we thought maybe we could meet some of the staff. We walked over to the warehouse where the tour company is located. Sure enough, the founder of the company and some of his staff were at the door. We introduced ourselves and they invited us to go for coffee with them. We had a nice visit!

We went back to our apartment for "riposa', as the Italians do!

After dinner, we went back down to the old city to see the beautiful monuments lit up. Spectacular!! The street atmosphere changes completely at night. The streets are packed with locals and tourists . The restaurants and bars are full.

The streets are alive with people at night!!