Lecce

Lecce needs 2 days: touring Piazza del Duomo and the Basilica of Santa Croce, examples of 'Lecce Baroque' carved in local honey-colored stone, on one, and visiting the Abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate, a 12th-century Norman monastery in the surrounding countryside, on the other. April-June and September-October bring the mildest weather. It's inexpensive for southern Italy. It's known as the 'Florence of the South' for the decorative profusion of its own Baroque style, carved in a local limestone so soft it hardens on contact with air, which let local craftsmen sculpt details impossible in other stones.