I decided to spend 2 days in Lecce walking around the old city because I love all the old stuff built in the time of the Romans. I got a 2 night stay at a B&B right in the old part of Lecce. I left at 7:30am giving myself some time to get lost as I always do. Without GPS or a phone, just a highway map, I knew finding this place was not going to be easy. Lecce is only an hours' drive from Villanova. There are virtually very little street signs with their names in and around Lecce.
So after riding around the city and not having any luck, I parked the car, walked across the street to a magazine stand to buy a street map. The man was very nice, spoke some English and showed me on the map where I was and where I wanted to go based on the address of the B&B. The map was plastic coated and shiny so you couldn't write on it. I had to try to remember where he pointed our location. How could I be so lucky? I was just about 1/2 km away from where I wanted to be. The streets are very short in Lecce and after walking around the block where MaMa SiSi B&B on Via Richel Rubichi 3 was supposed to be and not finding it, I stopped to ask 5 cute policemen where it could be. They all were very nice and said to just go around the corner. Well what I didn't know was all the B&B's in town were on the 2nd and 3rd floors of some very old buildings. On the street level were storefronts and bakeries etc. You have to find this little keypad with some doorbell buttons to push next to the name of the person or business you want to let you into. I found a little keypad with the words MaMa SiSi B&B and rang their bell. I was originally looking for a much bigger sign for this business. I told them who I was and they let me in. I went up the spiral staircase to the 2nd level. There the attendant told me they had a problem in my room and was waiting for a technician to come but could send me across the piazza to another B&B. So down I go to find this other B&B in a city with next to no street signs. It took me a while but I finally found it. It was Hotel Mirage on 12 Fanteria. Now I had to do a LOT of walking to find this place and I didn't wear my walking shoes. I had sandals on. So I checked in finally. The time was 12:30. Now... I had to find my car!!! After a lot more walking and walking I saw it. I walked up to my little AYGO and KISSED it! The thought occurred to me a few times that I might not really know where I had parked it. But luck again was on my side. So I drove it a little closer to the B&B and parked it at the Piazza Mazzini recognizable by a large sculpture in the middle. Now I had to just find the B&B again and I would be golden. The streets in Lecce are not parallel or are in any order. The city is a large maze of one-way (mostly) streets.
I got to see a lot of the old city, took a lot of pictures and really love this city. During one of my stops to ask directions, I went into a cafe', ordered a coffee Americana (with milk) and a still warm croissant filled with vanilla and chocolate cream. MMMMM. The owner was a really nice guy who brought me outside and took me down the street a bit to point in the direction I needed to go. Some of these Italians aren't so bad after all.
My feet hurt but I am oh so happy!
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