Known as “Florence of the Baroque,” which is abundantly evident, Lecce is also known for its beautiful Spanish architecture, papier mâché religious sculptures and archaeological remains of Roman rule.

The Baroque style employs plentiful and intricate ornamentation. New motifs introduced by Baroque are: the cartouche, trophies and weapons, baskets of fruit or flowers, and other kinds of ornate carvings.

This part of southern Italy is called the Puglia region referred to as “Italy’s heel”. If Italy is a boot, then Puglia is its heel. Lecce, along with several other cities, compose a peninsula called Salento. More on this later.

Here’s some of Lecce.

My intention when I saw this young man, Michael, standing outside the hair salon shop of Riccia’s Professionals Caputo Hairdressing in Lecce, was to get my haircut similar to the way, I’ve always worn it, shorter and blown dry. And, then when I walked in the shop and saw all of these white woman with curly hair, I thought I had walked into the right place for sure to get this imagined haircut back to my former style. 

I’m pretty sure Michael and several others were a bit skeptical as to what they could do for this black woman’s hair, but what I was expecting is not exactly what I walked out with. 

No, I did not get a haircut. 

Instead, I actually got a lesson on using a hair drying diffuser while scrunching my curls. Turns out, I don’t need a haircut, I just needed help with having my naturally curly hair look better. 

Michael did the washing and conditioning and then Mare finished up with the blow drying diffuser and pumping up my curls. I like it and I’m definitely going to try this out for awhile. Here’s to having curly hair!