Day 37 - Ostuni to Lecce

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 2

Actual Distance Walked: 8.5km, Actual Time Taken: 2h 4m
Planned Distance: 7km, Estimated Time: 2h 12m

Today's walk started with retracing our steps out of Ostuni, so of course we went off track.  Once back on the path we walked through olive groves to a farm, Lama di Galizia.  We mostly made it there without unnecessary detours.

We got to the farm at around 11am.  The lady of the manor greeted us and fed us local produce, either from her farm or from surrounding farms.  We had red wine, bruschetta with olive oil (hers) and tomato, cheese, capocollo, olive oil (hers) with bread to taste, limoncello (hers) and lemon cake (also hers) plus coffee. She was very friendly and welcoming.  We had a pleasant time even though she spoke no English and my Italian is not very good.  I tried translating for Keith&Kim but I'm fairly sure I said about Keith's grandfather that "she came to Canada after the 1st world war".  

I'm not sure what the point of this stop was.  We've been eating local produce in all the towns we've been staying in.  I would have preferred to have a longer day of walking.  Walking all the way to Lecce would not be practical but we could have walked to Carovigno and caught the train from there.  That would have been an easy 20km walk as it is not very hilly.

On the plus side, the farm had a lot of cats so we each got to cuddle a cat while we waiting for our driver to pick us up.  My cat was (clearly) a male who wasn't named.   We were told none of the cats had names as there were too many of them.  My cat had recently been in a fight.  You could see something grabbed his head and bitten him as he had wounds on either side of his head.  Fortunately, the wounds were healing well and weren't infected.  I very much doubt she bothers getting any vet care for the cats.  She could solve her problem of having too many cats by simply getting them desexed even if she can't be bothered providing any more care for them.

The drive south to Lecce was rather sad as we passed field after field of dead or dying olivètrees.  Olive trees can survive almost anything (see below) but not imported pests and diseases.  It must have been absolutely devasting for the local farmers and the local economy as a whole.

We got to Lecce around 1pm, so much too early to check into our hotel.  In fact, the reception desk wasn't even manned.  The front door was locked and there was a sign with a set of phone numbers to call.  I guess if you were already a guest you had a front door key and if you weren't a guest you weren't welcome yet.   We took refuge in a nearby bar and had more drinks until 2:30pm.  Getting to Lecce so early was another reason why the plan for today wasn't very practical.  We could hardly go sightseeing lugging our suitcases around with us so there was nothing to do but wait about.

After checking in and cleaning up I went for a wander about Lecce.  On the recommendation of the hotel receptionist (who had now finally appeared) I went to the Museo Faggiano.  This was fabulous.  In 2001 Signore Faggiano bought an ordinary building in the historic centre of Lecce.  He planned to live in the apartment upstairs and turn the downstairs into a trattoria.  However, the downstairs toilet kept backing up so he started digging up the floor to find the sewer line.  He soon found the floor was a false floor and then were ruins below.  After much (illegal and unsafe) excavations he uncovered traces of occupation from 5th century BC, through to the Romans, the Knights Templar and a 17th century nunnery.  Eventually the authorities found out, not to mention his wife (he was tying a rope around his youngest son and sending him down holes and into tunnels to find out what was underground) but he was ultimately forgiven.  He still owns the property but it is now a private museum.  You can wander very freely around.   I'm sure much of it would still give an OH&S inspector fits.  I loved it.

After visiting this museum I just ambled around Lecce.  I sampled 2 of the 3 gelateria recommended by the hotel receptionist.  They were decent but I've had better.  In the end I went back to the bar where we had taken refuge earlier and had a drink & just watched the world go by.  Most of the rest of things to see & do in Lecce is to visit churches and I'm not particularly interested in doing that.

I met up with Kim&Keith for dinner.  We went to Trattoria Nonna Tetti, another recommendation.   The hotel receptionist's first real fail.  We had the antipasto della casa which was mostly good.  A dish of caponata, a square of very cheesy frittata, some fried cabbage & salami (too salty), some cheese with fig jam, a single arancino and some other fried balls of something (dull).  Next I had the Fantasia della Nonna, which was gnocchi with tomatoes and salami.  The gnocchi was made from spinach and potato but could have been used a small missiles in a slingshot.  The sauce was tasty but too salty.  On the plus side, the portions were huge and the prices were low.

Tomorrow is the last day of this hike.  Keith&Kim are going to stay put as Kim has a nasty cold and doesn't feel like walking.  I'll just join them for dinner, which I actually prefer.  Tomorrow I take a train to Otranto, do a loop walk there and then train back.  It is 1 1/2 hours each way.  Surely there could have been somewhere closer to here to do a walk.  I've enjoyed this hike but I do think some things could have been better managed.