In our travels around Lecce, we met up with a group of Australians who were here on a month-long holiday.  We were able to join in the Italian classes they were taking and join in some of the outings the school  had arranged.  The first was a trip to a small town of about 10,000 inhabitants called Parabita not far from Gallipoli.  We were told that we were going to a light show, but were not quite sure what that meant.  What we found was wonderful.

The whole town was decked out with food stands and lighted panels, some of which could be synchronized with music (think the Electric Light Orchestra on steroids).  I tried to upload the Can Can number but the internet here is so slow I gave up.   I may try again later.  We were then treated to the best fireworks-set-to-music show I have ever seen.  And we are in Italy so we could stand right below them.  Not sure how safe that was, but it was amazingly beautiful.  The tower in the pictures must have had enough explosives in it at the start of the show to blow it sky high.

The road to Parabita

This small square was a little less chaotic, where the fireworks were was so crowded that we could barely breath

Food stands everywhere

This incredible treat was being prepared onsite

Sweets

Sausages

The whole family gets in the act

The light tunnel, the far end is probably 300 yards away

Imagine this pulsating to the Can Can

fireworks

fireworks

fireworks

I don’t know about everyone else, but my impression of paper mache has always been to make a mess when I was a kid.  We would soak newspaper in water with glue in it and whatever came out, we had a good time.  As we traverse the world, we find that others have different priorities.  Who would have thought that in some corners people take it seriously and create objects of real beauty.  Here in Lecce it is an art form.  The following are all paper mache, cartepesta, for sale around Lecce.

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We will soon settle down to a more regular routine, but for now the adventure just continues.

I had contacted a friend of a friend, Rosita D’Amaro, who has her permanent residence in Amsterdam, but teaches Turkish literature for part of the year at the university here in Lecce.  We were going to meet up over the weekend, but she became ill and we needed to postpone it.  She called us yesterday to say that she needed to run an errand to buy a wedding present for relative and asked if we would like to accompany her to visit the studio of relatively famous Italian stone artist, Renzo Buttazzo (www.renzobuttazzo.it).  For those of you who know Holly and I, you know we jumped at the chance.  Again, we hopped in a car with someone we barely knew and braved the Italian highways (they really don’t seem to understand the idea of lanes).  What a treat!  Renzo was was such a genuine person with so much passion and love for what he does, we could not help but get caught up in the the day, the art and the person.  I just hope the pictures capture even part of the magic.

The tools

The workshop

The art

The art

I think Holly found her place in the sun

One final note for today, as many of you know Holly is planning on continuing to teach via the internet while we are here.  We thought ourselves very smart by buying a roll up keyboard and taking it with us.  After having played with it for a little bit, she decided it just would not do.  So today we purchased an electronic keyboard,. Not her Steinway, but we are hoping it will suffice.    We have it set up on our ironing board and here is her new piano studio:

With my learning to configure this blog and internet issues in Italy, this is all a learning experience.  On Friday I decided to use my smaller camera to take pictures of an old monastery that now is used by the University of Salento  and got a couple of nice shots.  The problem is that for some reason they won’t upload to the blog site.  I just get an http error.  When I go to help, it is written in a version of techno babble that is beyond my current understanding.  I will load those pictures once I figure it out and use only my other camera until I find the cure.

In the meantime, last night we met up with the people who run a local tour company, Espressino Travel (www.espressinotravel.com), Lili and Robert.  After an aperitivo at one of the local cafes, we strolled about town and ran into a lovely Irish couple that Lili and Robert knew and we all ended up eating what is claimed to be the best pizza in Puglia while sitting on the steps of one of the many churches in Lecce.  We are told that is the only way to eat pizza here.  By the time we were finished, the steps were full of locals eating their pizzas and chatting.  In case it isn’t obvious, it was truly a magical evening.

I will post the old monastery pictures tomorrow.

After exploring Lecce for the last several days, we went in search of the bus that would take us to the Adriatic.  It was a little work but with the help of a friendly Italian man, we boarded the bus (with a little trepidation).  The ticket machine on the bus was out of paper, so the ride was free.  20 minutes later we were on the seashore.    As we got off the driver let us know that he was returning to Lecce in 45 minutes and if we were not on board, we would need to wait 4 hours to return to town.  We had a quick beer and lunch and just barely made it back to the bus stop.  The return trip was also free.

City Garden in Lecce

Piazza Sant’ Oronzo – Lecce’s main square