We began the day enjoying another yummy breakfast of croissants and figs while our host Fabrizio told us more about football in Italy. We saw his father, Giovanni, hop on his old rusty bike, with basket, again. Yesterday he was biking to get peaches (even though there was a pile at the table) and not sure what today’s grocery run was for but off he went.

Torre dell’Orso is not a picturesque town like everything else we’ve seen on this trip. It’s entire existence is in support of the gorgeous beach. The concrete buildings are two or three stories tall, and painted white or beige. Lots of palm trees. But the location of the B&B is perfect with only four other people as guests who we’ve seen each morning at breakfast.

This morning we went to the city of Lecce which is often called “the Florence of the South” because of its baroque architecture. Every way we turned there were beautiful buildings, ornate balconies and doorways, and probably at least a dozen churches. We also found Givenchy in a Coin store. Miss M and I always like to find the fragrances during our trips and take a pic to share with Auntie Diane.

Lunch was at South East Cafe where Miss M had Greek yogurt with fruit, and the rest of us had sandwiches with Lecce’s typical bread called puccia.

We spent the afternoon swimming at Grotta della Poesia (Cave of Poetry) where the main attraction is jumping off the cliffs into the Grotta or the ocean. We could swim from one grotto to the next, and into a cave where the blue of the water rivaled what people pay money to see at Capri’s blue grotto. There were two ways to get into the water: climb down a set of narrow slippery stairs carved into the side of the rocks, or jump. As the afternoon progressed, the boys mustered up the courage to jump from the highest point.

In the evening we went to Otranto which is known for its picturesque sunsets. The road to the point overlooking the sea was closed so a sunset wasn’t in the cards for us tonight.

The old city of Otranto is at the port, so for dinner we ate at Il Cantico die Cantici where we had gnocchi with mussels and clams while the kids had spaghetti with butter (the first of the trip.) Not the best meal we had but it did the trick.

After walking around Otranto a bit, we headed back to Torre Dell’Orso for gelato from Dentoni (Nutella freddo, coffee, praline and bacio.)