The Beach, the Centro, and Gallipolli Again

So let's play catch-up! I haven't posted in a few days because I've been heartbroken over my camera. My friend and I were in the city center the other day taking photos and out of nowhere it just died. The lens and zoom froze and the camera won't even turn on. I was so sad, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. In the last few days we hiked to a hidden beach, went shopping at my favorite stores in the city, got lost for 3 hours outside of it, and I went with a couple friends back to Gallipolli for the night.

On Tuesday we went to Porto Selvaggio, a gorgeous hidden beach on the Ionian Sea. To get down to it you have to hike about half a mile through a pine forest, so imagine our surprise when we turned the corner and the entire population of Italy was there! Everyone was spread out amongst the pine trees, laying on towels and easy-chairs they lugged down with their giant coolers. There was no actual beach, just a little bay of rock that people could climb and jump from into the turquoise water.

On Wednesday I went with two of my friends into the city center, to my two favorite stores. The first is Gusto Liberrima. In an instance of incredible coincidence or serendipity, the New York Times published an article titled “36 Hours in Lecce, Italy” just two days after we arrived. The author of this article, Seth Sherwood, spent a day an a half eating and drinking through Lecce’s many restaurants, bars, and gelaterias, visiting a few churches and shops along the way. There was no way I was passing up an opportunity like this, so I decided to take full advantage of Seth’s (I feel like I know him) recommendations for ‘my’ city.

Thank god I did, because that's how I found Natale, my favorite gelateria, and Cartoleria Pantheon, a wonderful little stationary shop where I bought a Florentine hard-cover journal and made friends with the owner.

Gusto Liberrima is one of my all-time favorite stores. I've gone four times in the ten days we've been here. It's a store completely devoted to cookbooks, culinary novels, gourmet cookies and pasta and oils, and a ton of wine. Basically it's heaven. I'm trying to survive on pasta for the next two weeks so I can afford a big, beautiful book of Pugliese recipes when I leave for the north.

The Caffè Alvino is a luxe little café directly on the great Piazza d’Oronzo, the heart of the city. Inside are rows and rows of cookies, cakes, croissants, and pastries. Chocolates and painted marzipan fruits line the upper shelves and below them sit fluffy works of confectionary genius covered in fruits or sugar and filled with rich chocolate and cream. Right next to that heart-stopping case is a full gelato counter with every flavor you could wish for, and across from that is a coffee bar crowded with customers sipping espressos and the sound of the steam from the coffee machine. It was a little crowded, but so worth it.

On Thursday I went with five friends on a bus to Gallipolli for the evening. It was the first time we really went out on our own, and it went surprisingly smoothly! The bus took an hour and we arrived at dusk, making our way to a central cafe for some iced coffee. Afterwards we bought some rusticos and took them to the wall overlooking the beach to watch the sun set.

When the sun set we walked to the city center to listen to music and look through the souvenir shops. Gallipolli is famous for this beautiful orangey-red coral that the artisans make into intricate and delicate jewelry. The wind was blowing really hard but everyone was out enjoying the breeze after the hot day and the streets were full. We made our way to the cliffs at the edge of town to a restaurant overlooking the beach. We got a great table, ordered a couple bottles of wine, and feasted on fish and mussels. After dinner we walked back over the bridge to New Gallipolli and had some drinks with Alberto and Alessandro, two Italian gentlemen the other had met in Lecce the night before. We talked about everything from soccer to accents to the chocolate festival in their hometown of Torino. It was so nice to carry on a conversation with native Italians!

After drinks we headed back to the bus stop to catch our midnight ride back, and nothing. The bus didn't come until one! We were seriously considering going back to the city to dance until the next bus- at 6am, but just as we were about to give up the bus pulled in and we climbed in, relieved and just a little bit disappointed. We will definitely be going back.