I had been so excited to arrive in Bari. Apart from it being a great city, with an interesting old town, it was also part of my pilgrimage to visit the second of the three places that I know my Dad was, during the war. He told me very little of those times, but I heard just a few stories, one of which was that he worked in or ran the military post office in one of the waterfront buildings in Bari, for a time. About ten or so years ago, there was a photo in The Times of the Bari waterfront, accompanying an article about the beautiful women, who came from Bari and attended Berlusconi’s bunga bunga parties. Dad pointed out the building he had worked in. And so today, we walked to a vantage point that we could see the sweep of the bay that was in the photograph and then along the promenade, past the grand buildings. We knew we were somewhere close.
Added to this we walked around the beautiful old town, with it’s narrow streets and little courtyards, all keeping cool, despite the heat outside in the full sun. Romans, Saracens, Normans and Spaniards have been here in the thick of fighting throughout the know history of the area. There is a 13th century castle, a cathedral and numerous churches. Interspersed between the tourist shops are greengrocers, bakeries and grocers selling fresh pasta, which we gather is sometimes made in the street, but wasn’t today.
By the time we were walking back through the modern area of the city, it was getting close to shop closing time for lunch, but we managed a little retail therapy. We needed some new bed sheets and found some beautiful ones, with Italian style. As we were leaving the shop the proprietor said, “uno regalo” (a gift). It is a little cat, which I've decided will be our ship’s cat. I have named her Bari the Cat, in celebration of our visit to Bari.
Our cafe stop was a bakery frequented by locals, who were warmly greeted on arrival and who also enjoyed the delicious food on offer. The Puglians are also very proud of their produce. On the bus back to the marina, as well as on the way in, the driver didn’t have change, so didn’t charge us the fare. They were, as ever, very happy to tell us where to get off, with the help of other passengers, all very friendly. This is part of the delight of using public transport.
The day was rounded off by joining a Canadian couple, on their boat, for "sundowners". They had coincidentally also left their boat in the same boatyard in Sardinia at the same time as us, although left before we resumed our travels last year, and have been playing leapfrog with us, since we left Sicily. They are also headed for Croatia, so we enjoyed exchanging stories and plans.
Miles Today - 0
Miles 2022 - 737
Tricia (and Steve)
Comments
Post a Comment