Lively, striking, with unique shapes, atmospheres, languages: this is Lecce. A city welcoming visitors like a grand stage full of symbols, characters, anthropomorphic figures, in a scenario full of engraved stones. This is the expression of the baroque identity, playful and mysterious, of the city dominating for centuries the last stretch of land overlooking the Adriatic Sea.
From Piazza Sant'Oronzo to piazza Duomo, we are overwhelmed with images full of details and meanings, decorating the magnificent churches and aristocratic buildings, telling us about a thriving past full of imagination and creativity, typical virtues of people in Lecce. This culture is also expressed through the refined mix of colour and flavour of its cuisine, which is maybe simple, but rich in symbols and double meanings, or craft, where the creativity of 17th-century architects like Zimbalo, lives again, shaped up in Lecce stone, terracotta, iron, papier-mâché, and the art of embroidery.
Thus, Lecce is a melting pot of artistic, architectural, gastronomic expressions, natural result of the numerous civilizations that lived here, from the Messapian to the Byzantine culture, the Norman and the Spanish. In this mixed identity, excitement and mystery are a constant element expressed through the baroque art and the overwhelming rhythms of the pizzica, the legendary whirlwind dance that, according to the tradition, saves you from the bite of the tarantula.