A day in Lecce, an hour and a half by train from Bari.

Lecce is at the end of the Adriatic railway line, an hour and a half or two hours from Bari. It is the prettiest city in Salento and is covered entirely on foot, so you do not need a car: you leave Bari in the morning, see the Baroque on a single ticket, climb the Duomo bell tower, eat Salento cooking and return for dinner. The plan works any day, Sunday too.

Getting there from Spain

By plane and train. There are direct flights to Bari from Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia. From the airport, the train or the bus takes you to Bari Centrale station, from where the trains to Lecce leave. If you arrive in the afternoon, sleep in Bari and do this plan the next day.

The day, hour by hour

8:20 · Train to Lecce. From Bari Centrale, the journey takes an hour and a half to two hours depending on the train: the high-speed ones are the quickest. From Lecce station, about twenty minutes on foot to the centre.

10:15 · Santa Croce and the Baroque of LeccEcclesiae. Buy the full ticket (€21) at the Santa Croce ticket office: it includes the five churches and monuments of the circuit and the bell tower. Start with the Basilica of Santa Croce, finished in 1695, with its facade full of animals and figures and its great rose window. Continue to the Piazza del Duomo, enclosed like a courtyard, and go into the Duomo and the Old Seminary, with its cloister and the Museum of Sacred Art.

12:15 · The Duomo bell tower. In the same square, a lift takes you up to the balconies at 43 metres. It goes in 20-minute sittings with 15 people: book the time on the website. From the top you see the rooftops, the olive-covered countryside and, with good visibility, the Adriatic.

13:30 · Lunch at the Osteria degli Spiriti. About ten minutes on foot, beside the public gardens. Tiziana and Piero cook dishes from the Salento tradition with a little more finesse: vegetable and focaccia antipasto, spelt spaghetti with aubergine, salt cod. On Sunday it is open from 13:00 to 15:30. Book.

16:00 · San Matteo, Santa Chiara and Sant'Oronzo. With the same ticket you enter the two churches you have left. Finish at the Piazza Sant'Oronzo, with half a Roman amphitheatre in view, and pass by the Porta Napoli and the castle of Charles V.

18:30 · Return to Bari. By train, to be in Bari at about eight.

With children

The centre is flat and pedestrianised, and the bell tower is climbed by lift, which children love. For ages 12 to 17 the ticket costs less, and there is a family ticket. Bring a hat in summer: there is little shade between the churches.