October 16, 2024
Lecce - the "white city"
The hotel in Otranto was made of a pretty stone, and the breakfast was fabulous. Here we are just coming back from dinner.
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As expected the day started with a climb but it was not at all like yesterday. A couple of steep bits, but overall rather mild and then we attained the higher ground and stayed there all the way to Lecce with some dips and small hills.
We started out on "dead fig road" - with lots of dead-looking trees that we thought were olive trees for a while, then saw a few leaves and occasional dried fruit. Definitely figs. Although the olive trees were still looking good, the figs looked stressed.
I am aware that some types of olives are for eating, and some are only for oil, and I really don't know the difference - but assume the smaller ones are for oil. Therefore, I am thinking these are oil olives, and they look about ready to harvest.
Underneath many of the trees were nets to catch the olives, and there a few offerings already. I suspect they will accelerate the harvest by banging on the trees in short order.
This type of landscape persisted for dozens of kilometers along lonely roads.
Through a few towns on the way just waking up, Marjory was able to find one "grocery store" that had ice cold coke. Her day was made.
We started to see stone fences, but a little different than what we had seen prior. These were regular "bricks" of stone, rather than the irregular shaped ones that didn't need mortar.
Here and there we saw walls of these "bricks" as well, and then some deep pits. In one pit there were 9 olive trees planted which looked really weird. But for the most part, the pits were lined with these "bricks" and were deep and large - and clearly old.
We started to get the idea that these were quarries, and then saw wholesalers that had stockyards with these stone bricks.
Most of the quarries were lines with tall walls of these stones, so no pic was really clear. Here though, you can get the idea of the quarry and its size.
And then the castles started. All were made of those bricks, and the surround towns were too.
Clearly there was some significant wealth generated over the centuries (?) from mining this rock and selling it. And then building a nice house from the earnings.
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We were never able to coordinate time-wise for being hungry when the restaurants were open. A little picnic was actually just perfect.
We saw perhaps 2 trulli, but numerous of these stone garden sheds. They had a grass crown and usually a door - although it is hidden from view below.
We did finally find a cafe that gave us a quick break from the heat. Note the yellow brick on every building.
The towns were entirely made of this yellow brick.
Churches, castles, palaces - clearly a wealthy era.
Ho hum, another castle. This one may be much older though, because it does NOT have that yellow brick.
We arrived in Lecce, and of course the entire city is made of this brick. Very very pretty town.
Tomorrow we explore Lecce a bit, and will share a few pics.
Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 433 km (269 miles)
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