With exposure to the air, the stone hardens and takes on the warm, golden color that gives the city its unique look. The presence of many religious orders in Lecce, combined with the launch of the Counter-Reformation and the presence of an active, adept community of artists working in Italy, made Lecce's unique architectural movement take the shape it did.

Not to miss
With the longest coastline of any Italian region and a pristine, rural interior, all of Apulia merits a visit. The Gargano area in the province of Foggia contains gorgeous rocky beaches, bays and cliffside villages. Easily reachable by ferry are the Tremiti Islands-San Domino, San Nicola and La Caprara-covered with a rich layer of vegetation and surrounded by clear, warm water. Farther down the peninsula on the coast is Ostuni, a brilliant whitewashed city crisscrossed with alleyways. Gallipoli is an elegant island connected to the mainland by a bridge (not to be confused with Gallipoli in Turkey, the site of a major battle in World War I). At the bottom of the heel-the dividing line between the two seas-is Santa Maria di Leuca.

Of wheat and wine
Despite its generous coastline, most of Apulia's strong food traditions come from the land, not the sea. The region produces nearly half of Italy's total olive oil volume, at 200 million liters per year. It was once known as the wine cellar of Italy, thanks to an abundance of strong red wines that were often blended with finer wines from other regions. In recent years, though, certain Apulian wines have jumped in quality and gained international recognition, with Salice Salentino, Brindisi, Copertino and Primitivo di Manduria leading the pack.The creators of orecchiette and numerous other beloved pastas and breads, Apulians have always been attached to wheat. In 1647 the Spanish rulers in Bari imposed a tax on flour that led to a violent eight-day revolt. The people of Bari fought back and won. Round, hard rings of bread called friselle are an Apulian staple. Made of roughly ground wheat, they have a long shelf life much more similar to crackers than to fresh bread. Friselle form the base of a typical summer meal. Dipped in water to soften them and laden with juicy tomatoes, unfiltered extra-virgin olive oil and salt, they become an easy, no-cook alternative to pizza. Many Apulian families eat homemade pasta once or even twice a day, often in the form of orecchiette ("little ears")-round, concave disks of pasta. Sometimes made with a mixture of whole-wheat and regular flour, recchie (as they are called in local dialect) are often tossed with broccoli rabe or a meaty tomato sauce. Variations in size merit different names: chiancarelle are small orecchiette, and pociacche describe the larger-than-usual size. Strascenate are squares of pasta dough that are rubbed over a ribbed board to give one size a ridged texture. Another favorite is troccoli, square spaghetti related to spaghetti alla chitarra, but made with a special rolling pin with circular blades.
The typical flavors of Apulian dishes come from vegetables: Garlic, onion, hot red pepper, sweet peppers, eggplant and olives are some of the most common. Apulians are particularly fond of bitter greens, including broccoli rabe, arugula, and mustard and turnip greens. An unusual treat in Apulia are lampasciuoli, grape hyacinth bulbs that look like shallots and have an oniony taste. Meat plays a less prominent role than grains and vegetables in Apulian cuisine, but on holidays, traditional choices are pork and kid goat. Other specialties include blood sausages and braciole (rolls) of veal or horsemeat. Fresh cheeses are an Apulian forté, including delicious mozzarella made from either sheep or buffalo milk. Other local cheese choices include burrata (a fresh cheese with sweet cream inside), ricotta and cacioricotta (a hard, aged ricotta that is often grated over pasta). Apulia's exceptionally clean waters have led to a strong tradition of eating raw seafood, including oysters, baby octopus, mussels and sea urchins. Special meals end with sweets based on almonds, ricotta, candied fruit and honey, reminiscent of Sicilian pastries. One highly recognizable dessert is the rolled, jagged-edged, crunchy cookie called cartellata, sprinkled with colorful nonpareils and served during Carnevale.

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