Saturday April 22, 2023
This morning, Carol and I finish our toasted bread and have another great cup of coffee. We leave our home and meet Dave and Gwen in a Piazza down the street. From there it is a pretty straight shot to the station and we get there in plenty of time. They have an automatic gate system which seems temperamental. You need to scan your ticket both exiting the station and entering it. When we arrived, Gwen and Dave’s ticket code on the phone did not work. Carols paper ticket worked fine, so they both piggybacked on mine with Gwen barely making it through. This time my paper ticket does not work so we go to another entrance and it works, Gwen follows me in and then Dave follows Carol. We all have time to use the restroom before we head to our track. The train arrives at 1001 and departs a minute later at 1002, better be early for this one. At one station along the way we stay stopped for about 15 minutes before moving on and arrive about 15 minutes ritardo. It does not matter as there is no connection to catch. We find our way to the BNB pretty easily even though the last .3 is a little tricky. A man lets us in that doesn’t speak much English and he calls a lady who asks who we are and once I tell her she says our room is ready, put the man back on. He takes us up to our rooms and does a fairly good job of explaining everything in the room, the breakfast time, and then shows us a small but nice rooftop terrace. The rooms are a bit on the small side but very clean. After settling in , we go out to get a panzerotti, something Carol would get in New Jersey, yet I had never heard of or seen in New York. We find our way to the square where they are sold and wouldn’t you know it, they are closed this afternoon. Now we are close to the Orecchiette Street, where ladies make this local pasta on the street and sell their products. They do make it look easy. It is time to go on a search to eat. And what a search it becomes as we get turned around following Gwens google maps. It gets very confused in the maze of the old town streets and the map we have is not very good as it only has major streets on it. We amble around and around observing the lively Saturday afternoon Italians. We settle on a small sandwich stop where Carol and I get eggplant and Dave and Gwen share a ham and cheese. Now that are stomachs are not growling at us, we try and make heads and tails of the streets around us.
We go through Piazza Mercantile which is on the map and get a glimpse of the sea. We are looking for the Basilica of San Nicola and eventually we find our way to it. Built from 1087 to 1197, the Basilica is an important pilgrimage destination for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe. It was built to house the relics of St Nicholas ( yes the inspiration for Santa Claus). The relics were brought to Bari (ancient speak for probably stolen) from what is modern day Turkey, in 1087 to ensure their safety due to their religious significance. A statue of St Nicolas is outside in the piazza. The exterior of the church is not very ornate, but the interior is beautiful. It has an 11th century bishops throne and in the crypt below are the relics of St Nicholas. At one Point while looking at the relics, I turn to look to see where Carol is. Right before I turn someone calls out for Biko. As I turn, I hear, you are not Biko, I am Biko, there is only one Biko, there is no other Biko. Biko is great. Not sure if he is Russian or some other country like that, but I have to strain to keep from laughing or giving him my sly smile as it is quite humorous to me. So remember, there is only one Charlie and I am Charlie!
The next stop is an attempt to find the Church of San Marco dei Venezianir (St Mark of Venice) which is supposed to have a very cool interior. We look for the street that heads to it on the map from the Basilica, but can not find it so just use our geosense to wander in what we think is the direction and see a sign pointing towards it. Unfortunately, it is closed. At this point on a beautiful day, we decide to just stroll along the seaside. Some access is blocked off as they are setting up numerous tents and things for what we learn will be the taste of Bari in two weeks. We walk above the sea on the old walls and then find a way down to walk along it. We walk for quite a while enjoying the day and then find a street we think may go back to our hotel. A dead end, some general winding and we come to a more Main Street that leads to the street we are off of. Right near our place we stop and get some zeppole they are frying right there in the street and bring them back to our BNB.
We have a rooftop terrace and we meet on it with our Zeppole and a bottle of wine. Music is playing in some square and we have a view of the nearby cathedral. Dave finishes their bottle and decides to go get another for them. When I finish my wine, I go to take a stroll to see a nearby foccacia place and find its hours. I go through the cathedral square which is hopping with a deejay and some girls leading a dance party. What catches my eye are two nuns dancing with the crowd. It is fun to watch. I leave to find the foccacia place which is closed but turns out to be one that has a 45 minute wait non stop so not for us. I duck around into the Panzerotti piazza we were at to start our day and the panzerotti place is open. I walk in and order two different panzerotti s to go. I return to the rooftop and we enjoy the panzerotti sharing half of each so we can taste both. A panzerotti is like a calzone but they flash fry it. They are good but Carol says not like the ones in New Jersey. When the wine is all finished Dave and Gwen want to go out to dinner but we are now full from Zeppo’s and Panzerotti.
They head out to find dinner and we leave shortly after just to stroll on this nice evening. We split a slice of foccacia pizza and wander the bustling city. Carol spots a gelato place in Piazza Mercantile, which of course leads to us ordering two gelatos. They have tables on the square and we sit and watch all the Italians walking by. We notice a trend in the younger women. Very short skirts or shorts and high class cowboy boots. We sit for over a half hour just observing Italian life moving past us. It is a Saturday night so everyone is out. We enjoy the great people watching and then head back to our place for the night. Bari definitely has a different vibe than the smaller towns we have been visiting. Expenses Train from Matera to Bari 11.40E Eggplant Sandwich Lunch 8E. Panzerotti Dinner 4.50E Slice Foccaccia Pizza 2.50E Gelato 6E Bnb La Maison Borgo Antica 72E Walked 8.7 Miles
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