Lecce-Puglia

Lecce-Puglia

We caught the train from Alberobello to Martina Franca where we waited 2 hours before catching our connecting train to Lecce.  Mind you, we nearly missed our train, as we didn’t realise that the single, dilapidated carriage at the station was in fact our train and it was only when Michael checked with the station-master that he told us to quickly board.  The journey was pleasant enough, passing vineyards and small farms that were curiously devoid of animal life. 

 

We arrived in Lecce in the late afternoon and a short walk took us to our hotel.  I was a little apprehensive on our arrival as the hotel was situated in a dubious looking secure compound.  We were escorted inside to discover a brand new hotel and our room was decorated in a lavish, over the top style with fake rose petals scattered over the bed and throughout the bathroom.  It was different, to say the least!

Lecce is sometimes called the Florence of the south and it is easy to see why.  The buildings are very grand with many in the process of being restored, and beautiful cobbled laneways wind between them.  We visited the Basilica di Santa Croce, a lovely Baroque church which was completed in 1695 and we also saw the remains of the Roman amphitheatre which is half buried under other monuments.  It was relaxing just walking around and admiring the sights and it was the perfect place to break our journey.

 

The Castle of Otranto

Three different trains took us from Lecce to Otranto via Zollini and Maglie (we are certainly seeing a lot of the countryside).  We dropped our bags at the hotel and then it was off to explore the city.  Otranto is a beautiful old seaside town on the Adriatic coast with lovely white sandy beaches and we enjoyed wandering around in the glorious sunshine.

 

The next day, Michael had his first dive of the trip while I relaxed in the sun.  In the afternoon we set off to visit the main purpose of our stay – the castle.  On one of our first trips to London, Michael and I attended the Terror and Wonder exhibition at the British Library where we discovered that the first Gothic novel ever written was Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.  We both subsequently read the book, and when we saw that our trip to Puglia would take us close to the setting of the story, we decided to take a slight detour to visit the castle.  This is actually more than Horace Walpole ever did, as not only did he not visit the castle, he actually didn’t know that it existed until after he had written the novel.   

The Aragonese Castle is an imposing edifice and Michael and I enjoyed wandering the towers and rooms so much that we decided to undertake the guided tour of the subterranean chambers.  What was I thinking?  I think I got carried away with the fact that most of the novel is set in the secret passages and wanted to see them for myself.  First we were issued with a hard hat – no problem, I thought, that would just be for health and safety reasons.  Then I realised that the helmet had a miner’s lamp attached and that was when I started to feel uneasy.  We set off in single file, following our guide down a set of stairs, so far so good.  Soon it was very dark and I heard Michael hit his head and I realised that the passages were very low and were narrowing rapidly.  I was the last in line and I kept reassuring myself that as long as I kept everyone in sight I would be all right.  We kept descending steep and uneven staircases, which were carved into the rock and I soon fell behind, as I was worried about tripping in the dark.  I was mid descent of yet another set of stairs when I realised that I couldn’t see at all and that everyone had completely disappeared from view.  I stood frozen on the steps with the feeble light from my lamp flickering.  I couldn’t decide whether to return the way I had come or try to move forward.  Slowly I felt my way to the bottom of the stairs only to find that I was now in complete darkness with absolutely no clue which way to go.  I was just at the point of rising hysteria when Michael suddenly appeared and irritably asked what I was doing and to come on!  I couldn’t wait to get out of there and was so grateful when we finally climbed into the light.  My heart was thumping and my legs felt like jelly and it took a good forty minutes and a caffé corretto before my heart rate returned to normal.

 

Michael spent the next two days diving and I will turn the blog over to him to tell of his experiences.

 

My last dive in Dublin was 14c and visibility of 30 cms, so you can my image the joy of diving in 21 c water with up to 30 metres plus visibility.  The dive centre also provided 15 litre tanks so bottom time was much longer.  The dive shop said it was bit cold and the visibility was better in the summer as the water temperature gets up to 28c. On top of this dive sites selected from the port were excellent with caves to explore and a large variety of fish, moray eels, octopuses.

 

Santa Maria Di Leuca   

 

Two more train trips took us to the very pretty town of Santa Maria Di Leuca, or Leuca, as it is more commonly called.  Leuca sits on the southernmost tip of the Salento peninsula where the waters of the Adriatic Sea meet the Ionian Sea.  The tourist crowds have well and truly departed so we have the town pretty much to ourselves.  We explored the shoreline and took a walk up to the Cascata Monumentale Di Leuca, a huge man-made waterfall at the end of the Puglia aqueduct, the longest in Europe.  Mussolini was very proud of this and ordered a huge waterfall to be built and a large Roman column to be transferred from Rome and erected at the base.  It is very impressive however it wasn’t running at the time we were there.  We spent 3 nights in Leuca primarily for Michael to dive, so once again I will turn the blog over to him.

 

Due to being the off season I had to use two dive shops. One Salento Dive that was well established and I was able to enjoy some cave entry and deeper dives. The other dive shop, Gnu Diving, had started this year so took me further out into deeper water. The currents were a lot stronger as it is the mixing of the two seas.  There are limestone cliffs along the coast line that have been eroded over time so makes for an interest dive with much smaller reefs, however the nutrient rich water have a lot of fish.

 

Below the cliffs of the Cathedral they have a statue of Mary, which was lying next to the plinth to protect it from the winter storms.  Edit from Annette : I guess you could say that Michael saw the statue of the fallen Madonna with the big boobies (RIP Gorden Kaye – creator of one of the funniest characters ever known). They were a number of spots that had little shrines or markers placed around.

 

Also dived on a wreck the Tevfik Kaptan 1 which sank in 2007 with its cargo of wire that has not been removed. In 30 metres was a good clear dive and lots of marine life have made their home.

 

All were good diving experiences and well worth doing again.