Day 19, Lecce and Otranto

What a perfectly lovely day in Otranto and the surrounding area.  First, the weather was perfect - bluest of blue skies and temperatures in the high 60's and low 70's.  Otranto, another town I had never heard of, turned out to be chock full of surprises, from the gorgeous seaside promenade to the old fortifications in the city.  

     

And the best part - the mosaic floor of the cathedral, Duomo di Otranto.  The mosaic was completed between 1163 and 1165 by a local priest and depicts the tree of life.  

Inside the Duomo are glass cases containing 800 skulls and other bones of the "Martyrs of Otranto." These people were killed when the Turks invaded and demanded that the people convert to Islam.  These 800 refused and were beheaded.  Later they were beatified by the Church.  These cases left me unsettled and uneasy - but more about them later.

After a lovely two hour walk (with lots of stops) we rode out into the countryside where the guys completed a long walk on rocky, uneven ground to a watch tower.  Sheila, Joyce, and I rested, talked, and solved all the problems of the world yet again.  Next we went to a beautiful agriturismo for lunch.  This was the antithesis of yesterday's lunch.  The fully restored buildings have been turned into a lovely B & B.  The restaurant building is light and airy, filled with interesting art.  The meal was divine!!!!  This is truly the eating tour of Apulia.  We were so sated that we never ate dinner when we returned to Lecce.

We ended the day by taking an extra evening tour of what is believed to the location of the old synagogue of Lecce. Ido, our fabulous guide, helped us to arrange this tour.  It turned out to be over 2 hours long (way, way too long) and included most of the ancient sites in Lecce, including the Roman amphitheater, Roman theater, and a building in which a family found rooms from the Knights Templar.  The underground synagogue portion of the tour was a huge disappointment. The guide (who made us appreciate Ido's skills even more) pointed out where they believed an ancient Mikvah had been and showed us a picture of stone carved with Hebrew that has since been removed.  So, in fact, there is really nothing to see and the synagogue is just conjecture.  It is known that Jews lived in Lecce in ancient times and the guide told us that there were many Jews among the Martyrs of Lecce.  I had commented to Eric when viewing the Martyr's skulls that the cases reminded me of Auschwitz.  Now I had even queasier feelings about them.

In complete exhaustion, we were asleep by 9 PM.