Bari

I include these two photos for comparison. This is what we looked at when we got to Bari the first time, at the start of our trip: 

And here's how we arrived back into Bari at the end of our trip, after fighting hordes of Italian teenage festival-goers to get on a bus in order to get the hell out of dodge:

We're tan, we're sweaty, we're no longer in our twenties. We won and we got on that bus.

So Bari. As it goes with most Italian cities, Bari is steeped in history. Its location on the Adriatic Sea means it's long been a stronghold for shipping, trade and commerce. Behind Naples, it's the second strongest economy in the south of the country. But its location, just across the sea from Dubrovnik, means that the city has also changed hands several times. Today, the old town is a sleepy, charming place to wander. Outside the old town, commerce abounds.

From the vantage point of our B&B balcony and rooftop, we could see and hear it all. Women yelling at their husbands, women gossiping in front of their houses, children kicking footballs against the walls. At 1pm, everyone sat down to eat. At 2pm, the town went quiet for siesta. And at 4pm, the noises started to pick up again and everyone emerged from their darkened, cool caverns of home.

Wandering the streets, it's tough to forget the stranglehold Catholicism had/has on the country. For better or worse, it's woven its threads into the city. Puglia is also the home to my mother's favourite saint, Padre Pio. Statues, photos and religious icons, in their various formats, abound:

 As if to add to the contrast...

  

Upon our eventual return to Bari at the end of the trip, we opted to stay at a hotel well outside the old town. And though it wasn't entirely night and day, our little patch of town felt a bit more urban and modern. So we decided to sit by the pool of our cheaply obtained Mercure Hotel that was once some kind of Roman villa.

 

I wouldn't say Bari is a hotbed of activity but we definitely found its charm. As far as jumping on and off points go, it worked very effectively.