Lecce's Baroque is unlike ANY other Baroque in Italy. The pietra leccese (Lecce stone) is a soft, warm, honey-colored limestone that can be carved with fine detail when fresh — and hardens with exposure to air. 17th-century sculptors treated it like WAX: fruit, flowers, grotesque faces, angels, putti, monsters, caryatids, columns wrapped in vines, facades that look like LACE carved in stone. Santa Croce (1549-1695) is the masterpiece — a facade where every centimeter is decorated, where the excess IS the point, where the horror vacui of 17th-century Salento met a stone that said YES to everything.
Basilica di Santa Croce: The facade — 150 years of carving. The rose window is surrounded by cherubs, garlands, animal figures, and atlantes (male caryatids) grimacing under the weight. The upper section (Zimbalo + Cesare Penna): Balconied gallery with 13 winged caryatids. Stare at the facade for 10 minutes. You'll see new figures every minute. Piazza del Duomo: An enclosed square (one entrance) with the Cattedrale (dual facades — one for the piazza, one for the street), the Seminario, and the Bishop's Palace. The piazza is a ROOM — the buildings form walls, the sky is the ceiling. Anfiteatro Romano (Piazza Sant'Oronzo): A 2nd-century Roman amphitheatre, HALF exposed (the other half is under the buildings). 25,000 seats.
The walk: Via Vittorio Emanuele → Piazza Duomo → Via Umberto I → Santa Croce → Porta Napoli → back via Via Palmieri. 1.5 hours. Every 50 meters, a church facade wants your attention. San Matteo (concave-convex, like Borromini). Santi Niccolò e Cataldo (Norman-Baroque fusion). Rosario (Zimbalo's last church). The evening passeggiata: Via Vittorio Emanuele → Piazza Sant'Oronzo → Via Trinchese — gelato at Natale (Piazza Sant'Oronzo), the best in Puglia.
From Bari: Train 1.5h (€10-15). From Brindisi: 30 min. Lecce is a WALKING city — the entire centro storico is 1km wide. Stay 2-3 nights: Base for Otranto (40 min), Gallipoli (40 min), the Salento coast. Eat: Le Zie (Via Colonnello Costadura — home cooking, €12 primi). Alle Due Corti (Via Prato 42 — horse meat, Lecce's traditional protein). Rustico leccese (puff pastry filled with béchamel+tomato+mozzarella — buy at any bar, €1.50). Puglia complete →