On your first visit to Bari, explore the narrow lanes of Bari Vecchia (Old Bari)
to find austere Norman churches and lively piazzas packed with locals. Go shopping along
elegant Via Sparano on return visits to Bari. Then take a tour of
Puglia's unusual trulli whitewashed round houses with conical
roofs in the Itria Valley nearby.
Background
You'll best appreciate Bari's contrasting mix of medieval alleys
and ordered plan of modern streets on foot. A walk through the city takes you from
the teeming medieval backstreets of Bari Vecchia, home to Bari's
churches and monuments, to avenues like pedestrianised Via Sparano and shop-lined
Corso Cavour in Bari's new town. If you're in Bari to catch a
ferry to Greece, Croatia, Montenegro or Albania, head to the ferry terminal
overlooking the western edge of Old Bari, not far from Bari's massive
13th-century Swabian Castle.
First-time visit
Seek out the market on Piazza del Ferrarese square to pick up picnic
provisions. Then follow the curving seaside promenade, the Lungomare, with
its palm trees and moored fishing boats. Admire the sturdy Puglian-Romanesque style
of the Norman Basilica of St Nicholas and visit the crypt to see where the
relics of St Nicholas are housed. Take a tour of Frederick II's imposing
twin-towered Swabian Castle, on the edge of Bari Vecchia. Then choose
a local trattoria traditional restaurant specialising in freshly caught
seafood and the region's tiny ear-shaped pasta, orecchiette.
Return visit
Relax with locals on busy piazzas in Bari Vecchia and explore some of the 40
churches squeezed into its tiny backstreets and squares. Visit the gleaming-white,
12th-century Cathedral to see its magnificent rose window then leave the
winding backstreets to shop on elegant Corso Cavour in Bari's new
town. Take a tour to the nearby Itria Valley to visit towns like
Alberobello filled with strange beehive-shaped, whitewashed houses called
trulli.
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