The Museo Faggiano is one of the most charming and unlikely museums in Italy. What began as a plumbing repair in 2000 became a years-long excavation as the Faggiano family dug through layer after layer of Lecce's past: Messapian tombs from the pre-Roman era, a Roman granary, a medieval cistern, and a hall used by the Knights Templar. The accumulation of history beneath a single building tells the story of 2,500 years of occupation more vividly than any planned museum.
The family converted the whole building into a museum, with the excavated layers open on multiple floors. Glass panels in the floor look down into the strata below. The top floor has Roman mosaics and Byzantine-era objects. The whole experience is intensely personal — this is family history intersecting with the city's. Allow 45 minutes.