I am currently in Lecce, Italy until February 20th (more on that later) but haven’t updated in a while and have some photos of Glasgow prior to my trip:

Burns night supper and ceilidh at GSA with haggis, neeps and tatties (for reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_night)

Now back to Italy. After 3 flights (Edinburg>Paris>Rome>Brindisi) last Sunday, I arrived here in Lecce. I am participating in an intensive program in Climate and Sustainability in Urban Environments, which is completely funded by the EU. Honestly, the journey was exhausting but Lecce is a beautiful city and they have been feeding us like royalty with incredible food and wine so I can’t complain.

Edinburg>Paris

Can you spot the windmills?

Paris>Rome

The sun was so bright and began to cast this yellowish tint on the water – never seen anything like it from the air

Rome>Brindisi

Made it.

First dinner at the hotel : maccherioncini

Lecce (not as warm as it looks..snowed the first day!)

Universita del Salento

Stumbled upon this cool antique market

Breakfast room at the hotel

Pasticciotti leccesi con espresso – pasticciotti are a local treat only made in Lecce – crisp yet very delicate crust filled with warm vanilla custard – amazing!

Roof of the school (used to be a monastery!)

This is a Roman amphitheater where animals used to fight (no gladiators in Lecce) and it held over 10,000 people. It was buried until it was discovered in the 1930s but half of it remains buried because they wouldn’t demolish the church that was built on top of it.

Paper mâché is one of the local crafts of Lecce

Santa Croce (I think)

Napoleon pizza – love this oven setup

Cappuccino con biscotti

Site visit

Privately owned stone quarry (no longer in use, obviously)

Amazing Greek dinner

Believe it or not, we actually do some things not related to food

…then we get back to the food.

The restaurant at our hotel is delicious.

Orchiette con pomodori

Pollo

Gelato

Yesterday we had an incredible day trip. We first went to Gallipoli on the west coast of Salento (the region of Italy we are in), on the Ionian Sea and also to Otrantro on the east coast on the Adriatic.

Eating sea urchins at the fish market in Gallipoli

The local stone of Gallipoli is very unique and is made partially of crushed shells

Ionian Sea – it really is that blue, no photoshop needed!

Driving to Otranto

Thermal baths on the Adriatic (closed for the season)

Then we had a four-course lunch on a farm where all the cheese/vegetables/meat is grown/made. Amazing.

Appetizers

Chickpeas & chicory

Maccheroni

Pork & potatoes

Cake with fruit

After the epic meal, we got off the bus on the side of the highway to check out another abandoned quarry – the color of the water in these photos barely does it justice

Finally arrived in Otranto

We had dinner last night at our hotel, and even ended up at a carnivale party (conveniently also in our hotel)

Today was a much needed lazy day around Lecce

Arancino (rice ball) and espresso with almond milk

View from the hotel, (light) dinner at the hotel

As with other trips, I’ve gotten a lot of heat and jokes this week for my excessive photo-taking but I just can’t help it that everything is so beautiful and photogenic! It took me about four days to put this update together…time to mentally prepare myself (and my stomach) for week number two..