Bari, Bari Vecchia (Old Town)
Bari is a large port town on the Adriatic Sea/east coast. We had a short visit some years ago as a day tour from a cruise ship. The town has a long history from Roman times through a period of occupation by an Islamic states and remains the largest port town for southern Italy with a population of over 300,000. It was intended by us as the jump off point to other small villages/towns, so we had selected a B&B near the railway station and the old town of Bari.
The trip into Bari showed the area to be a major agricultural area particularly for olives and grapes and the long settlement of the area with ramshackle rural areas to modern suburban outskirts. The pictures below show these features.
We walked to our accommodation which we found to be well located to the CBD, rail station and the old Town over the next few days. The first night we went to the grand piazza (sorry about the terrible picture but it turned out to be better than the others I had taken)
The piazza leads to the retail district which like any CBD is a hive of activity. English was promoted as the language to be learnt but I don’t know if this is a genuine UK institution.
Beyond the retail district the old town commences and sprawls down to the harbour, the castle and the port. Below are pictures of the streets and a vendor selling cold drinks and vegetables. As we came through the street the castle loomed large in front of us. It was not open for visitors which we found frustrating as this is summer no reason to turn away inquisitive tourists.
From the castle we made our way to the port. This is what Bari is famous for a good harbour. Car ferries were popular and likely transporting to Croatia just a hop skip and jump across the Adriatic. I loved the portraits on the silos reminding me of the silos in the south west of Queensland.
We continued to explore. We were puzzled about what we did when we visited the Port of Bari all those years ago so we set about to find where we had spent our time when we had not even heard of Bari. We could recall visiting a square with a famous church in it. We could not recall the name of the church we visited but after some wandering and searching we found it – Basilica Pontificia San Nicola. I have inserted photos of the church and its square below. In our search we discovered Roman ruins – a piazza with broken columns and tiled floor quietly reminding us of the grandeur of the past. As we continued to explore we came across the large Cathedral shown below and the community theatre open for business. Last but not least some modern plumbing not having the strength of the Roman structures.
Overall, it was a tidy town, always bustling and busy and a great place to see the countryside around it. Next stop/village is Monopoli so look out “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – “ BARI to MONOPOLI”
glendon1954 