Lecce

Lecce is a city and comune in Apulia and the capital of its province, on the Salentine Peninsula at the heel of the Italian peninsula, with 94,387 people, the largest in the province. Its Baroque architecture has earned it the nickname the Florence of the South. That architecture depends on one material: Lecce stone, a local limestone soft enough to be carved almost like wood, which is why the façades here carry a density of ornament that harder stone would never allow.