Location: Lecce
Top Things to do in Lecce
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The 10 Best Things to Do in Lecce, Italy
Lecce (Italian: [ˈlettʃe] ( listen) or locally [ˈlɛttʃe]; Sicilian: Lecci, Griko: Luppìu, Latin: Lupiae, Ancient Greek: Λουπίαι) is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce, the second province in the region by population, as well as one of the most important cities of Apulia. It is the main city of the Salentine Peninsula, a sub-peninsula at the heel of the Italian Peninsula and is over 2,000 years old.
Restaurants in Lecce
1. Piazza del Duomo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 632 reviews
Reviewed By Bandit-One - Lucerne, Switzerland
Lecce is a lovely town. Even though big in size, the historic Centre is quite compact, easy to navigate and an easy walk.
The very highlight for us was the Piazza Del Duomo with its....well....Duomo. Makes some really great pictures. We came in high season on a sunday and expected huge crowds. How wrong we were. Only a handful of visitors on the Piazza and very little tourists in town in general. Looks like sundays are not so popular for visiting. Which was perfect for us. Made some really good pics. Just had to wait for the electric tourist "train" to leave, which messed up the scene.
It can get really hot in August here....maybe a reason for the low number of visitors. But if you don't mind the heat and the fact that many shops are closed, then sunday would be a perfect day to get great pics of the Duomo and Lecce in general.
The Duomo is a fantastic sight, maybe not as famous as the ones in Florence, Milano etc. But that doesn't make it less interesting. Surely not to be missed when in southern Italy.
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2. Centro Storico, Lecce
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 4 reviews
Reviewed By PointerDetroit - Detroit
Lecce is the largest town we visited over a 2 week stay in Puglia. In the city center there are Roman ruins which we appreciated more with the information provided by a guide. This was true of all the walkabout sites really - a guide provides details that bring the area to life. Nevertheless, even without a guide, you can have very fine walks in busy areas with grand edifices and small streets tucked away as well.
3. Duomo di Lecce
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2 reviews
Reviewed By bitler - Newport Beach, CA
The history here in this Duomo is almost unbelievable. Fresco’s galore, so beautiful and an active Catholic Church. In the area it appeared a lot of the locals go to church every day. This is located in the city center.
4. Basilica di Santa Croce
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1 reviews
Reviewed By Alessandro B - Lecce, Italy
An explosion of barocco ! The whole very harmonious and overwhelming.The aesthetically peculiar charme is due by the distinguishing property of the "lecce's stone" It is very malleable as wax and so very easy to work
5. Museo Faggiano Lecce
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 473 reviews
Reviewed By JMHGlobetrotter - Westport, Ireland
The whole family enjoyed our visit to this private museum which was set up after the owner started digging up a pipe prior to fitting out the building to be a restaurant. Seven years later, with no government assistance outside of an official archaeologist, they opened this fascinating window through the ages. A pleasure to visit and talk to the son of the owner about the place, their archeological adventure and the commitment of the family to bring this important find to life.
6. Chiesa di San Matteo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 218 reviews
Reviewed By KrisD_pl - Warsaw, Poland
Built in the 17th century this church is one of the most spectacular in Lecce thanks to its characteristic baroque style - barocco leccese as they say in Italy. You will find many richly ornamented altars with extraordinary columns and many statues. The facade is also eye-catching - semicircular at the bottom, more stratight at the top - also nicely decorated. Definitely worth a visit.
As previous reviewer we also came across a man "asking" for money - saying it was for the poor people and waiting until we finally gave some euro coins. Kind of impolite, pushy behaviour so be prepared to face him.
7. Museo Ferroviario della Puglia
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 108 reviews
The Railway Museum of Apulia Lecce is an important collection of tools and other objects that are ideally trace the history of railway Puglia. Inside are 32 antique vehicles of mixed age and several railway companies, from FS to FSE passing the Tobacco Factory of Lecce, in addition to this you can also see up close the historic train "Salento Express".
Reviewed By Art H - Dartmouth, Canada
I like museums featuring trading, trucks, cars one other machines, so when I saw that Lecce had a railway museum I decided to visit. On Monday, although listed as open, I was told it was closed. Just as well, it looked to me like there was two big school tours, one a group of teenagers, the other very excited six year olds.
The next day, I went back and and had the museum to my self. I paid my entrance fee and bought an English guide, one of the best I have seen, and only 1 euro. I was pointed in the right direction, and then was just allowed to explore.
The museum has an excellent collection of old locomotives, rolling stock, and support equipment. As well there was a good collection of model trains and railway posters.
One of the nicest things about this museum is that these trains are not restored, they have been fixed, made operational (I think), and left in their original survivor state. Not all are open, but you can explore one engine and a number of cars. Don't forget to go outside, there are more interesting cars out there, and off in one corner, slowly rusting away are done really interesting support vehicles.
My grandfather loved old trains, and wandering through here I could not help thinking of how much he would have enjoyed it. Do find your way to this interesting friendly museum.
8. Museo Fantasy
Overall Ratings
5 based on 62 reviews
Hi, we are the twins brothers Gabriele and Vittorio Magrì, artists and special effects technicians. We worked in 25 national and internazional movies and now we want to show you our creations at Museo Fantasy. COLLABORATIONS: DARIO ARGENTO, ROBERTO BENIGNI, ZOOLANDER 2, BEN-HUR, TITUS, MICHELE SOAVI, ROBERT ENGLUND, CARLO RAMBALDI, BRACCIALETTI ROSSI 3, MANUALE D’AMORE 2, STRISCIA LA NOTIZIA, SCHERZI A PARTE... ecc, ecc
Reviewed By heleenzz - Almere, The Netherlands
Museum runned by two twin brothers. They showed all of their work which they used in some movies. They also had a room with all of their creations as kids. They were really passionate about their hobby/work and it was very cute. Recommend!!Thanks a lot for your review! See you soon ;)
9. Piazza Sant'Oronzo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 483 reviews
Reviewed By Oldjack - Greater Melbourne, Australia
The square is large and it has to one side the old Roman Amphitheatre which is large and impressive as well as the Sedile, a tall monument. Other than that square is fairly standard and not that impressive with one corner with a chain restaurant out of character in a modern building.
10. Chiesa di Santa Chiara
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 140 reviews
Reviewed By DANIELLA107 - London, United Kingdom
A very beautiful church. Next to it is a big hotel , and it looks as though they have a restaurant. We just walked by and the piazza was wide and impressive.
