Yesterday, Holly and I again got the wanderlust and decided to take a train to Brindisi, a town 30 miles or so north of Lecce. It is a very active port, the site of the regional airport and yes, it is the historic end of the Appian Way (Via Appia) known in Roman times as Brundisium. For those of you who are fans of the old Kirk Douglas movie “Spartacus”, it was the place they were to be met by the Silesian pirates to be transported beyond the reach of Roman authority, only to be betrayed and left to their fate. 6,000 of them were crucified along the Via Appia, between Capua and Rome, as a reminder to other slaves to toe the line. I don’t think the pirates have shown up yet.
We wandered around for several hours and had lunch right on the waterfront. The restaurant got the prize for the best dish we had had so far in Italy, “il Nero”, black pasta with a mix of seafood (see picture below). There were a number of pleasure craft backed up to the bulkhead whetting my fantasy of getting a boat and sailing around for a year or two. For a beautiful June day, there was very little traffic in the inner harbor.
Overlooking the harbor is a site with one complete Roman pillar and one base. There is a bit of a story here. At one time two pillars existed and it was traditionally regarded as the end of the Via Appia (a tradition not backed up by much fact). At some point, one of them collapsed. In the 17th century, after some wrangling and seemingly some controversy, the collapsed remnants were sent to Lecce to use as a pedestal for a statue of Saint Oronzo, patron saint of Lecce, in the town square. I posted a picture of that monument earlier, but have included another here for comparison. Notice the metal rings holding the collapsed pieces together. Why they needed that column as a base will forever be a mystery to me.