The others- Day 22 (Lecce)

Today and tomorrow are "rest days" to give a bit of recovery time between rides and it has been great to just have a late breakfast and take leisurely strolls around the ancient town of Lecce with its Cathedral which dates back to 1144 and a Roman amphitheatre. To add the fun today was their youth environment demonstration so there were thousands of students in town and they marched through the central streets at 10.30. Interesting. They hold a pretty good quality demo here - all dressed in designer gear, iPhones to their ear or taking selfies and they spent their time both before and after the march in the town cafes having coffee and then pizzas etc afterwards - took us ages to get served for lunch! Lecce is a great place to spend a couple of casual days as there is something different and interesting around every corner. The old city area alone has 20 churches! Mostly baroque but each different. Time in Italy is sadly coming to an end. Some impressions of Italy: * the language is beautiful - to listen to Italian conversation is extraordinary - musical, emotional, so much expression goes into it. You can just stop, listen and enjoy! *there are no ugly Italian policewoman. *unfortunately in many areas they treat their beautiful countryside like a rubbish tip. We have never seen so much roadside rubbish. The demonstrators this morning could do a great deal for their environment just by going out and picking up tons of rubbish - plastic bottles for a start. *there is a mixture of very wealthy and very poor in coexistence. The economy is not good judging by the number of derelict buildings and closed businesses. Larger centres have lots of rundown areas. *the emergency service sirens are designed to leave your ears ringing as they pass by. *Italian drivers go by their own rules. They park where they like and take absolutely no notice of speed signs anywhere. Having said that we did not have one pass us too close on the bikes and all were courteous and patient - never a problem We have to be up early in the morning to fly to Paris. Spent some time today repairing my port from the Eqyptair handling/lost time so it will hopefully get everything home in one piece!