Accidental archaeology in Lecce

It’s not until you set foot inside Antonio Attanasio’s timeless Bar Martinica that you begin to understand Lecce, the real jewel of southern Italy. 

Martinica’s interior hasn’t been updated since it opened in 1968, not because of neglect, but because a timeless classic is exactly that. Its leather-seated booths point to a resistance to the passionless blanding of modern design and the walls are adorned with the works of Edoardo De Candia, a Leccese artist whose life’s work wasn’t truly appreciated until after his death in 1992.  

But not by Mr. Attanasio, who collated De Candia’s work in the bar, an homage to the artist’s custom. It is in Bar Martinica that Lecce can be understood. The pasticiotto, a filled pastry, is perfect, as is the rustico, a puff pastry filled with tomato, mozzarella and bechamel.  

An added bonus is that my Irish blood means that Lecce’s summertime coffee is a year-round treat for me; caffe Leccese. Glass, ice, almond syrup, espresso. Throw it all together - inside the glass - and there it is.  

If you can start your day at Martinica with a proper Salento breakfast among the local punters, then you’re off to a flyer. Step out the door and you’re right on the Corso, the street surrounded by artisan shops and a U.S. Lecce store, where the football aspect of the city begins, at its core. 

Lecce is often compared with Florence, considered its southern counterpart from an architectural perspective. What Lecce might lack in Renaissance art and influence, it tries to make up with a beautiful blend of Baroque-inspired traditionalism and youthful exuberance and expression.  

Quanto Basta cocktail bar balances the old and new, the vaulted brick ceiling and edgy, considered graphic design creating just the right atmosphere without feeling pretentious. It’s not often that a football fan can sit in a cocktail bar without feeling like they stand out terribly, but I didn’t feel out of place sampling the bar’s Salento-themed menu, and that’s not just because they had a Lecce jersey on the wall. 

The historic centre of Lecce does its best to let you know how proud it is of its football club. The red-yellow colours feature everywhere, as does the symbol of the she-wolf under the holly oak, the symbol on the city’s coat of arms. Shops adorn Lecce jerseys, flags, scarves, pennants.  

This isn’t Milan or Turin where the club colours might attract some brand familiarity and lure tourists into a shop, it’s Lecce and they do it because they’re proud. Even if U.S. Lecce are fighting a brutal battle against relegation from Serie A.  

On the day of Lecce-Napoli, the national media frame it as though Napoli have invaded the city and Lecce should be mere bystanders, but it’s a poignant fixture after club physio Graziano Fiorita’s passing the week before and their feeling that Serie A forced them to play against Atalanta while still grieving, having communicated they’d rather reschedule. 

Lecce’s first home match after Fiorita’s passing came the week after, when title chasing Napoli came to town for what would be a six pointer at either end of the table. And the authorities knew it, making sure that tickets couldn’t be sold online to avoid Neapolitans getting their hands on tickets through fake addresses. 

Two days before the match, over 700 tickets were cancelled when authorities discovered Napoli fans using fake addresses in the Lecce area to access tickets. I ended up sitting in one of the cancelled seats, but more on that later. 

Stadio Via del Mare, the home of Lecce, ticks every box of the archetypal Italian football stadium. 

Angular concrete and the hum of panino truck generators give way to small seats and cigarette smoke. Sat among the not-so-clandestine group of Napoli fans huddled next to the Perspex enclosed away sector, this is about as authentic as it gets outside of the home curva. 

Lecce’s ultras in Curva Nord protested the league’s decision to go ahead with the Atalanta fixture against their wishes by bombarding the pitch with flares, smoke bombs and anything else they could in an attempt to — one assumed — get the match abandoned. But all they achieved was to make for some very tired firefighters and a spectacle that brought applause from their Neapolitan opponents. 

Napoli had an early goal disallowed after Romelu Lukaku ran offside before he tapped home, but they managed to take the lead through a Jack Raspadori free-kick midway through the first half.  

That proved to be the only goal on a tense, nervous night for both teams. Lecce remained just outside the bottom three, Napoli cemented their place at the top. 

It was a rare occasion where both sides departed with a sense of satisfaction. Lecce’s largely generated from being able to put two fingers up to the league by causing some almost victimless trouble inside the stadium. 

The same municipal bus that dropped us to the stadium for €1.50 lay in wait after the match. Drivers dressed in business casual took cash, directed us onto one of the convoy of buses and did their best to beat the 30,000 other fans dandering down the main road back into town. In the dark. 

As trips to modern football stadiums go, getting to Via del Mare is a pleasant journey on the bus and relatively stress free.  

Lecce is pretty stress free as a city. The closest thing to stress might be Museo Faggiano, or at least its origins. Mr. Faggiano tried to dig up the floor of his house in the early 2000s to investigate a broken sewage pipe and ended up discovering an archaeological marvel, with some finds dating back over 2000 years. 

That’ll have been stressful. One day you’re wondering why your house smells like a toilet and next thing you’ve got a Templar hideout in the basement and your home is now a museum. 

There are few things that Lecce loves more than Fiat Pandas, but its street food scene is probably up there. Wander along Via degli Ammirati and pick up a pizza slice at Il Pizzicotto or a horse meat panino at Mezzo Quinto. Go on, be adventurous. 

If the sixties vibes at Bar Martinica haven’t drawn you in already, then Mile Vintage’s treasure trove of Italia 90 memorabilia might. 

Lecce boasts incredible Baroque architecture, great weather and a pride for its Salentino cuisine that makes it a must see any time of the year, but the prospect of watching Serie A football at Via del Mare then stuffing your face with orecchiette and pasticiotto has got to be too enticing for anyone to turn down.