Pre-trip musings

Puglia and Basilicata

We’ll be leaving for our summer 2019 trip to France and Italy next week; here’s a preview of our trip.  We fly from Washington, D.C. to Paris on August 13, and then on to Bari, in Puglia, which is along the Adriatic coast. After a few days on the coast, we go to Lecce, near the bottom of the “heel” of Italy’s boot shaped country. This is where we will spend a week, enrolled in Italian classes.

For some reason, Lecce is called the Florence of the south; I don’t yet know why, because Lecce is celebrated for it’s Baroque architecture, whereas Florence is largely a Medieval and Renaissance City. If I find out why Lecce has this moniker, I’ll let you know. Here is an  example of the Baroque in Lecce.

Basilica di Santa Croce 

The Baroque in Lecce is said to be florid and exuberant; I clearly see that in Santa Croce. It is also said to be compact and neat, which seems to be just the opposite of florid and exuberant. I’ll have to see for myself. In any case, Lecce has an abundance of malleable, golden limestone, we’ll suited for architectural carving and sculpture. A certain Bishop Pappacoda and the architect, Giuseppe Zimbalo teamed up around 1639, and thus was born the Baroque in Lecce.

Lecce was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd century BCE, and in the 3rd century, a 25,000 seat amphitheater was built by the Romans.

Roman amphitheater...partially covered by newer buildings 

The fall of the Western Roman Empire was followed by the Gothic Wars, then in 549 the area was back under the control of the Eastern/Byzantine Roman rule for five centuries, with incursions by the Saracens, Lombards, Hungarians, and others. From 1053 to 1463...with the Norman conquest and rule by the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither Roman nor Holy), it was part of the Ki glom of Sicily. Then there was rule by the Ottoman Turks until they were defeated in a  avail battle, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. 

And we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Hannibal, in 216 BCE, defeated a Roman army of 60,000 to 100,000 in Cannae, Puglia (north of Bari) by brilliant tactics. Fifty thousand Roman soldiers were killed vs. 6,000 of the Carthaginians forces. Hannibal May have been able to bring down the Roman Empire at that time if he had invaded Rome. Instead, 14 years later the Romans definitively routed the Carthaginians and razed Carthage. 

Enough for today...more on the rest of our travel itinerary in Puglia and Basilicata in the next post.

Ciao,

David