Bet you’re wondering what that even means.
We’ll get there, but first we have to GET there! But where is there? “There” is the quaint little city of Bari, located on Italy’s east coast right above where the “Heel of the Boot” starts. It’s a seaside town, sleepy, and full of tradition.
Why did I choose to go there, you may also be asking.
The backstory…
“It all started with a mouse”, so they say. Once upon a time back in 2016, I took a celebration trip to Disney for my undergraduate nursing degree. I had decided to try Maria and Enzo’s as it was still fairly new, and the theming was right up my alley. How cool that they went with a 1930’s abandoned air terminal replete with Art Nouveau murals and décor. Love it! The food was sort of meh-ish but something extraordinary happened during that meal.
I was with my 3 youngest kids who at the time were all teens, or just beyond, and we were having the loveliest time chatting with our Italian waitstaff. Even as far back as then, Italy was on my bucket list of places to travel to and I asked our server where I should go if I went to Italy.
“Oh! You MUST come to my village Bari, and another beautiful place is Polignano a Mare!! It is so beautiful there and you will love it!!”
I was sold. I had her write down the names of those towns and promised to take her advice and visit someday. The paper is long gone, but I had memorized the names and when it came time to actually plan out my itinerary, I remembered that sweet server from Maria and Enzo’s. We never made it quite to Polignano a Mare, but we came very, VERY close. I’ll get to that soon, but first, we’ll explore Bari where very few tourists venture. In a nutshell, it was amazing; just absolutely exactly all that I had dreamed about in an Italian vacation!
So, let’s go!!!
We were all up very early, long before sunrise, and hired a baggage handler to get all of our stuff with a cart to the bus station. We paid nearly $50 Euro for that, but man was it ever worth it!!! We all bought bus tickets to the airport, but as it turned out, we ended up having to split up due to the bus that was just leaving only having 2 seats left on it. Anara’s and my flight left first, so we said an extremely hasty goodbye and boarded the bus. Mom, Dad, and Mikki would take the next bus and began their long journey home. With only a small bit of drama which I’ll spare you from, we finally got on our flight on Ryan Air. With some not very great experiences at the Marco Polo Airport now, I highly doubt I’ll ever choose to transit through there again. (More on that in another post). The point here is that we were finally on our way to the Mother-Daughter portion of the trip that was so altogether very different that what I’d done in Greece. If I could only choose one half of this trip to get to do all over, I’d definitely choose the half we were just setting out on.
The sky was breathtaking as we broke through the clouds promising a great day ahead!
The Bari airport is a full 30 minutes outside the historic area of the city where we were staying for the night. I hailed a taxi and soon enough we were dropped off on the main road with a wave of the hand… “that way, through there”.
“Uhh…. Where?”
“Just there.”
“There” was the extent of our driver’s English.
I hopped on the Airbnb app and messaged our hostess through What’sApp- the preferred method that most of our hosts liked to use. It’s basically free phone calling on the net. Within a couple of minutes, a guy on a motorcycle asked if I was “Liesa” and showed us the way through the dense maze of narrow alleys in “there”. Seriously, it was such an amazing setting of little lanes all twisting and turning only wide enough for 2-3 people, or one Vespa, to traverse at a time.
It was far too early for our Airbnb to be ready, but we’d made arrangements for our luggage to be dropped off until we could come back and check in. Interestingly, the “storage place” was across the alley with a neighbor who would watch over it until then. Basically, it was her kitchen.
By the time we dropped our bags off it was about 10:15 and we were itching to explore what Bari has to offer. We didn’t have to go far. In fact, we were right in the heart of Bari Old Town and in the neighborhood where, for generations, ladies have set up their tables for their art of pasta making. The local specialty of Bari is “orecchiette” which literally means “little ears” and it’s not hard to understand why. Each little noodle does indeed resemble a little ear once shaped with the nimble fingers of these local experts. Done completely by hand with only a knife to aid. It was mesmerizing to watch!
Each lady had a table of her pasta all bagged up for sale and they came in a wide variety of colors to choose from- red, purple, yellow, green…. Orecchiette is the main pasta shape sold, but a few sellers also offered a few other types. Some had a few fruits or veggies; others had bags of sundried tomatoes. If you’re wondering, yes, I’d specifically chosen to stay in this area so I could see this ancient tradition being done. The neighborhood did NOT disappoint!!!
The other reason was for the Castello Svevo which was a 2-minute walk across the street.
And yet another reason was that I simply had to visit the memorial of Saint Nicholas. Yes, THAT Saint Nicholas; the one who Santa Claus gets his namesake from- or at least one namesake from. There are lots of hat tips and nods to Old St. Nick all around town, and even a Santa Claus Museum, which, while we stayed very close to, chose not to partake.
I have a saying in life- “But First Coffee”. I even have a cute little magnetic plaque that says exactly that hanging near my espresso machine in my RV. We were both pretty hungry, so we set off in search of coffee and eats. Luckily, Italians take their food (and coffee!) very seriously and it’s pretty easy to find something that will satisfy within a few steps. This morning was no exception and soon we were seated at the cutest little outdoor café sipping on a yummy latte and eating some creamy tortellini that was just perfect. We shared it and it was just enough to tide us over until dinner. We loved our little neighborhood eatery, and I enjoyed coffee there a couple of times. Mmmm!!!!
Full of creamy, delicious pasta, we still had quite a bit of time to explore and we opted for the nearest bit of antiquity- the Castello Svevo. Built in 1132 by a Norman King, it’s now used as both a museum and a venue for conferences and such. For those of you who skim, we loved it!! This is an absolutely fascinating site and still being actively excavated.
Continued in next post…