Welcome back to “When Wine Calls” as we continue our travels through Italy.
After just over 4 hours on the train from Rome we finally arrived at Bare Centrale, the gateway to the Puglia region of Italy located on the south-east coast and often called the Heel of Italy. We had wanted to travel to this part of Italy for so many years after our friends Duncan and Sandy with their daughter Ash travelled through this region pre-Covid and shared their experiences. Historically, the Puglia region has been the holiday destination for Italians when they take their summer break in late July and August but in recent years has been discovered by overseas tourists who are increasing in numbers visiting Bari and other towns on the Italian east coast. Pauline and I wanted to come here to explore this region before it became overrun like the popular Amalfi Coast.
On arriving and leaving the station it was evident that Bari was nothing like Rome and Bologna. Bari is a port city of around 350,000 residents with a mixture of classic Italian, French Riviera, as. well as modern buildings throughout the new part of the city.
It is a very clean city with wide tree line streets and some impressive clothing shops that Pauline loved looking through the window as we walked along. Apart from being a port town and the gateway to the region it also has the best-preserved Old Town we have seen so far on this trip. Ferries also leave from Bari to ports in Croatia, other parts of Italy, Greece as well as Albania, Montenegro, Greece, and Albania. We only saw one cruise boat in port during our time in Bari, so we are guessing thatthe cruise industry has not fully caught onto this town as yet compared to the Amalfi Coast and Venice etc.
We were initially going to catch a taxi to our apartment but decided that since it was only a 10-minute walk we would go that way using our GPS as a guide. It worked out a little longer than that in the end as the directions kept changing but eventually, we saw our host waving to us at the end of the street we were in, and we knew we were there. When you book apartments on-line you are uncertain whether the location and the pictures provided on the site are an accurate indication of the actual apartment. In this case the pictures certainly do not do it justice, and we were ecstatic with both the apartment and its location as soon as we arrived.
The apartment was located right across from the beautiful waters of the Adriatic with balconies off all the rooms at the front of the apartment each with a magnificent view. The building had a gorgeous staircase with one of those classic old lifts that only takes 2 persons and you need to close both the outer wrought iron doors and the inner timber doors for it to work.
Below the apartment was a bar with outdoor seating which we enjoyed each afternoon drinking Aperol Spritzes’ (for cooling down purposes only) and restaurants on each corner. A few minutes around the corner were the supermarket, bakery, and wine shop. We could not have asked for anything more to enjoy our time here.
On our first day we again went on a free walking tour predominantly around the Old Town. It was incredibly clean and with so much character seeing how the locals live in this part of town. guide, Anna had grown up in Bari and indicated to us that on those days it was a dangerous part of town and as a child she was not allowed to wander through this area. Today, it is a wonderful place to walk through with Anna introducing us during the tour to a few locals such as a lovely lady who sat at her kitchen table each day making pasta that she sells out of the front of her flat.
We were also introduced to the iceman and his boys who were carrying on their family’s legacy and providing the town with ice as well as the elderly man who rode a little vespa through the narrow laneways delivering goods and provisions to the elderly living in this part of town. In one instance we watched him delivering goods to a woman who lived on the 3rd floor of a building with no lifts, so she passed down her blue bucket to the street and pulled up the groceries back up on a rope.
The other interesting site in the Old Town was an historical temple site that is now ruins but is used by the local kids as a soccer field with the goal formed from what would have been the original altar – just amazing scenes.
One of the most significant buildings in the Old Town is the Basilica di St Nicholas which dates back to the 11thCentury and holds wide religious significance and an important pilgrimage destination both for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians. It also holds the primary relics of Saint Nicholas in a tomb in the crypt where they have rested since 1089. During the tour we went there to visit and on turning the corner to the front of the church we saw a long white carpet in the square heading into the church and realised we were witnessing a local wedding in the basilica complete with invited family and friends as well as tourists all making up the guests celebrating the wedding – most unusual.
We were so fascinated by the Old Town that we went back the next day and wandered further to absorb the atmosphere and call into a few of the local shops. Interestingly, when we got back to the basilica, we also saw another wedding happening so it would appear to be a regular occurrence with the wedding party readily accepting the tourists being a part of their ceremony.
After touring the Old Town again, we went over to the nearby port to get our bearings for when we return in a few weeks to catch the overnight ferry to Croatia. We had researched that it was a bit of an exercise as you must first check in at the ferry company’s office near the Cruise Terminal and then walk around to the other side of the harbour (with your luggage) to the Ferry Terminal to board the ferry.
It was a hot walk in the heat, but it was worthwhile as we will not have a lot of time when we get back here to work it out and cannot afford to have any issues in boarding given the connections we have in Croatia. Following that walk it was back to the bar below our apartment for our afternoon refreshment to cool down (yes with Aperol Spritzes) – we were certainly getting use to this ritual while we were there and found it really refreshing during the very hot days.
Since we were staying in an apartment, we were able to catch up on our washing again (the last time was way back in Dundee, Scotland) and we were fascinated by how the locals hang their washing out over their rear balconies was worried that we would drop some of the clothes down into the restaurant kitchen below us so we went out and bought some new pegs that would hold the clothes tighter to the line – not too sure I would be enthusiastic about hanging sheets out on the line this way though although the locals are pro’s at it.
We also took the opportunity of cooking a few nights in the apartment so we could have some local salads and vegetables from the nearby shops. While the restaurants are great in Bari it is always good to have a home cooked meal when you’re travelling, and it also gave us the opportunity to eat on our balcony, enjoying local Puglia wines, while overlooking the water and the atmosphere the locals provided walking along the foreshore below us – a couple of relaxing and enjoyable evenings.
We did, of course, have some interesting events at the supermarket in buying our dinner ingredients as English in Bari Is not as common as in the tourist cities such as Rome and our Italian remains weak (I would probably say non-existent) but we have made it through generally although have sometime ended up with a different outcome to what we expected – quite hilarious on some occasions actually but all part of the fun of travelling in this part of Italy. Since we will be travelling further south after we leave Bari, I am sure our love affair with the language will continue.
On our last morning in Bari, we sadly said goodbye to the apartment and went around the corner to our favourite caffe frequented by the locals and had our cappuccinos and pastries out on the footpath and listened to them talking without a clue what they were saying.
Our next stop was the airport to the north of the city to pick up our hire car to travel through Puglia for the next few weeks. On our daily walks we had uncovered a small taxi rank around the corner from the apartment which would mean we would not have to drag our bags back to the train station where the main taxi rank was located, so we headed there and struck it lucky with only one taxi waiting at the rank. We hopped in and when the driver spoke good English and knew exactly where in the Bari airport precinct, we needed to go for the hire car we thought we have got this, but we spoke too soon.
After five minutes into the journey, the taxi driver received a phone call, immediately pulled around the next corner and into another taxi rank, turned around to us and said that he had a family emergency and that we would have to get out here as he had to go. There we were, with our bags on the side of the road with no other taxis in site and in an area of the city we had never been before – the unpredictability of travel. Luckily for us he didn’t just dump us there and rang around what appeared to be several of his mates with one of them, “Antonio”, agreeing to come and pick us up. Shortly afterwards, we were in Antonio’s taxi and on our way again to the airport both of us breathing a huge sigh of relief.
We eventually arrived at the airport but with Antonio’s English not that good he dropped us off at Arrivals so we ended up having to wheel our bags down to the hire car drop-off point which is also the pick-up point to complete paper work and collect the keys – what we had estimated would take us all up about 45 minutes to pick up the car ended up taking us double that time – we were fortunate we were not in a rush to catch a flight instead. The takeaway from the experience for us is that when travelling always expect the unexpected even if there is no sign of it at the time, it is always just around the corner.
We finally got out of the airport car park and on our way south towards our next stop, Villa Convento, approximately 3 hours away. More detail on the fun we had during the trip down there to share with you in the next episode. Until then “Arrivederci” and we will catch you again from somewhere in Puglia.
Bruce & Pauline
When Wine Calls 
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