Where to Eat, Drink, & Shop in Lecce

Back in stock plus our Lecce greatest hits.

Back in Stock!!!!!!

In case you missed our last email here’s what’s new at EXAU…

1. We rebranded <3

2. Sets are BACK IN STOCK

3. The olive oil club is OPEN (choose from: 2 bottles, 4 bottles, 6 bottles)

4. 20% off the 2021 harvest Lina

WOWZA! Thank you so much for your kind and supportive comments, DMs, and emails over the past week. Rebranding EXAU has been a huge but very rewarding undertaking.

Giuseppe and I couldn’t be prouder of this small yet mighty company we started six (!!!) years ago.

We’d love to hear from you, what do you think of the rebrand?!

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Last month Giuseppe and I were in Lecce, one our favorite cities! But before we jump in let’s talk about some of southern Italy’s geography...

Blue = Calabria, Red = Basilicata, Gold = Puglia

Calabria, which occupies the ball of the toe, technically only borders one region, Basilicata. And for the most part, Basilicata is landlocked, however, it has two very small strips of coastline along both the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Sea.

This always throws me off because:

1. If you glance at a (noncolor coded) map you’ll likely automatically assume Calabria is right next to Puglia and Campania (it’s not).

2. It’s a QUICK drive through Basilicata to get to Puglia, blink and you might miss it.

If you’re into geography, go take a look at a map.

Need help with your next trip?

EXAU now offers travel consulting for southern Italy! This service is great for independent travelers who need guidance and structure for their trip but want the flexibility to adjust their own plans.

If you’re interested email us at hello@exauoliveoil.com for more information or simply respond to this email : )

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Where to drink & shop in Lecce

In Lecce, we ate and drank a lot… What else do you expect? Salento is known for good food and wine!!! We aren’t usually big drinkers but when we have friends visiting, especially from the US, we love going to really great bars for really great cocktails…

We also did a fair amount of shopping, the city really has some great boutiques, and caught a great street fair. Lucky us!

Where to shop

I love shopping in Lecce because the city has done a great job at containing the big box stores to one side of the city (hopefully it stays that way) allowing the smaller stores to exist in the historical center with less competition but lots of foot traffic.

The main shopping street in the historical center is Via Giuseppe Libertini. It’s filled with really cute, small boutiques and also happens to be the location of a wonderful perfume shop called Salentum.

I read a post awhile back about a woman who buys perfume whenever she goes on a meaningful vacation and when she wears it, it reminds her of that trip. And I love that idea because smell is an integral part of emotional memory and it sticks with you for years.

When I was a kid I remember my mom buying two perfumes on a trip to Maui and I can still recall the exact smell of the jasmine. It’s one of my first core memories, and I remember it like it was yesterday. But I haven’t been back to Hawaii in probably 20 years.

Now I have a huge jasmine plant outside of our window in Calabria.

For shoes, coats (not that you’ll need one right now), and bags there’s a lovely store, mostly for women, called Laborfur. Yes, they do also sell fur coats but they have a really great selection of wool coats and sweaters.

Via Giuseppe Libertini eventually turns into Via Vittorio Emanuele II which then runs right into Piazza Sant’Oronzo. There are lots of shops in the piazza as well, but they’re a bit more commercial.

If you continue walking through you’ll eventually run into Via Salvatore Trinchese which is where you’ll find the Zara’s and other big-names.

We highly recommend getting your shopping done in the AM, because the later it gets the more crowded it gets. And Puglia is starting to get really hot, especially in those small Lecce streets.

In April the smaller boutiques closed in the afternoon, from 1pm - 4pm, and had limited hours on Sundays. However, the hours might change during the summer with more tourists.

The bigger stores do not close for lunch and are usually open 7 days a week.

What to drink in Lecce

Salento is famous for wine. Specifically Negroamaro and Primitivo. It’s fascinating the different types of wine vintners can produce from just a few types of grapes. For example, Negroamaro is used to produce both rose and deep, rich red wine.