Italy Guide
Puglia
Piazza Sant'Oronzo
Start at Piazza Sant'Oronzo, the hub of the old town, named after the first-century bishop of Lecce who went to the lions under Nero. His bronze statue lurches unsteadily from the top of the Colonna di Sant'Oronzo that once stood at the end of the Via Appia in Bríndisi. It reappeared here in 1666 to honour Oronzo, who was credited with having spared the town from plague ten years earlier. The south side of the piazza is taken up by the Anfiteatro Romano, which probably dates from the time of Hadrian. In its heyday it seated 20,000 spectators; today it's used for the Christmas nativity scene. Sadly, most of its decorative bas-reliefs of fighting gladiators and wild beasts have been removed to the town's museum for safekeeping, and nowadays it looks rather depleted.