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The moment you step off the train at Lecce station , warm air meets you carrying the faint , chalky smell of sun - baked stone . Walk ten minutes into the old centre and the city reveals its defining palette : pale gold in full sun , deep cream in the shade . This is pietra leccese , a local limestone so soft that craftsmen could carve it almost like wood . Between roughly 1600 and 1750 , architects and stonemasons used that softness to build one of the most densely decorated Baroque cities in Europe . Start at the Basilica di Santa Croce , whose façade took more than 150 years to complete . Press your hand against the stone and feel how warm it holds the heat . Look up and count the layers : writhing grotesques at the base , garlands and cherubs above , and a great rose window crowning everything . Cross the street and enter Piazza del Duomo , a wide enclosed square that functions as Lecce 's true civic heart . The cathedral on your left was rebuilt in 1659 and stands beside a bell tower rising 70 metres above the piazza . Climb it on a clear morning and the terracotta rooftops spread in every direction . By late afternoon the low light turns every surface amber . Find a bar in the old town and order a pasticciotto . It is a short - crust pastry filled with egg custard , warm from the oven and priced around one euro fifty . That one bite is what you carry home .
