Monday (Oct 3) was a pretty chill last day in Lecce. We had a leisurely morning, with a breakfast of scrambled eggs and mushrooms, cheese and tomatoes, and toast, made by Susan. Delicious! I found another tailor on google, in the continuing quest to get my pantsuit hemmed, and success! The little tailor shop was just a short walk away, and we were helped along the way by really nice locals, one of whom took us right to the shop. While I was in getting my pants pinned, Susan and Beth were chatting with her (I believe there was a of various restaurant for dinner). I tried out my new purse today and I was really happy with it.
We popped into several other shops (Susan got a purse and I got a blouse), and we had a cappuccino stop. Ross got several things at a Sonny Bono shop that has just menswear. We made our way back to the apartment, and started packing up for our onward journey to Rome. Susan and Beth went out to get us take out sandwiches for lunch (they had similar pucce sandwiches to what we had yesterday, but
We spent the rest of the afternoon packing up and relaxing in the sun on the patio, and then Ross and I went out to the tailor shop to pick up my pantsuit. We thought it would be ready at 5, but when we got there around 5:15ish the shop was closed. Hmmm. There were two signs on the door, one which said it would be open from 4:30 to 7 pm, and another which said it would be open from 6 pm to 9 pm. Most of the shops in Lecce are open in the morning, then close from around 1 or so to around 5 or so, then are open till maybe 8 or 9. Ross had thought she said my pantsuit would be ready after 5, but he wasnt positive. It wasnt really worth it to go back to the apartment and out again, so we wandered around for awhile, killing time until 6 pm. I said to Ross he could go back, I was fine on my own, and knew the way back, but he ended up staying with me.
We got back just before 6, and were relieved to find the shop open (I had visions of having to leave Lecce with my new outfit locked behind in the tailor shop!). My hemming was done, and all was good.
We walked back to the apartment (it was getting a bit windy and chilly at this point), and I got changed into my new outfit (Ive never worn anything like this before but I quite like it), and we used up the rest of our Aperol to make a couple of spritzes, and finished our white wine and the last Peroni. Around 7:30 we walked into the old town, through the beautiful Piazza del Duomo looking lovely all lit up, and decided to have dinner at Antica Corte Ristorante which had a nice inside courtyard, protected from the wind. It was quite cosy there. We shared a carafe of house white, and started with bruschetta (very yummy, such fresh tomatoes and arugula and cheese). I had an orecchiette pasta in this area in Italy) with turnip greens, cheese, and anchovies. It was different, and very good. Susan had what was described simply as pasta with chickpeas, and
it was excellent. Ross had a mixed seafood plate, and Beth had a shrimp carbonara pasta. We finished with limoncello (Ross and Susan) and Amaro (me). It was a lovely and delicious dinner for our last night in Lecce. On the way back we stopped for gelato (I had the pistachio and chocolate I wanted to try - yumm). I was super stuffed at that point! We waddled back to the apartment in the quite chilly wind.
We were up, breakfasted, and ready to leave at 9:30 yesterday morning for our trip to Rome. We drove about 1 hr 45 min to Bari, where we dropped off Fabio, and got the train to Rome. We had time for a cappuccinos before we boarded the train, and we bought sandwiches for lunch on the train. The train but ended up being a bit of a milk run, making quite a few stops before we got to Rome. We walked from the big Rome train station, Termini, to our apartment where we are spending 3 nights, arriving about 6ish. It is a nice two bedroom (actually there are three bedrooms, one with two twin beds), two bathroom apartment.
