Things to Do in Bari: Puglia's Capital, St Nicholas, and the Old City

Bari is the capital of Puglia and the major hub city for the heel of Italy. It has a functioning port (ferries to Greece, Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro depart from here), a well-preserved medieval old city (Bari Vecchia), and the finest Romanesque church in southern Italy. It is also a genuine Italian city rather than a tourist set — prices are lower, the food is excellent, and the rhythms of daily life are more visible than in the more-visited south.

Bari Vecchia (Old City)

The old city is a dense maze of white-washed lanes on a small peninsula between the old port and the modern city. The streets are narrow enough to touch both walls simultaneously in places; women of a certain age have traditionally rolled and cut pasta (orecchiette) in the doorways and alleys, selling it to passers-by. This still happens — particularly on Arco Alto and the streets around it. Watching and buying fresh orecchiette from the women who make it is one of Bari’s most distinctive experiences.

The old city feels genuinely inhabited and has none of the sanitised quality of more tourist-heavy southern Italian towns. It also warrants some awareness — it was historically rough, though much improved. Walking in daylight is fine.

Basilica di San Nicola

One of the finest Romanesque churches in Italy and one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Christian world. St Nicholas — the historical figure behind Santa Claus — was a bishop in 4th-century Myra (in modern Turkey). In 1087, Bari merchants stole his relics from Myra and brought them to Bari, where this basilica was built to house them. The crypt contains St Nicholas’s tomb, one of the most visited Christian shrines in southern Europe. A continuous stream of pilgrims (Orthodox Christians from Russia and Eastern Europe particularly) visit year-round.

The exterior is the model for Apulian Romanesque — two towers, a deep porch with carved capitals, and blind arcading across the facade. The interior has been altered over centuries but the original nave and the ciborium over the high altar (12th century) survive. Free entry.

Cathedral of San Sabino

The other major Romanesque church, just inside the old city. The exterior is simpler than San Nicola; the crypt has the alleged tomb of St Sabinus of Canosa, a 4th-century bishop.

Castello Svevo (Swabian Castle)

The Norman castle (begun in the 11th century, expanded by Frederick II in the 13th) is at the edge of the old city, directly on the seafront. Occupied by successive powers until the 20th century. The outer walls and moat are visible; the interior houses a plaster cast museum of medieval Pugliese sculpture. €5 entry.

The Lungomare

The seafront promenade — 5km of palm-tree-lined Adriatic waterfront, from the old port to Fiera del Levante. A good evening walk with views of the sea and the Adriatic light.

Day trips from Bari

Bari is the best base for exploring Puglia:

Alberobello (50 minutes) — the UNESCO-listed trulli town. The conical stone houses with whitewashed walls and grey limestone roofs are unique to this small valley in the Murge hills.

Locorotondo and Cisternino (1 hour) — beautiful white hill towns above the Valle d’Itria. Less visited than Alberobello, equally charming.

Castel del Monte (1 hour) — the octagonal Hohenstaufen castle built by Frederick II in 1240, UNESCO World Heritage Site. No one knows for certain what it was for.

Matera (1h 40min by train) — the cave city of Basilicata.

Ostuni (1.5 hours) — the “white city” on a hill, visible for kilometres across the olive-grove plain.

Food

Puglia has some of the most distinctive and direct food in Italy:

• Orecchiette con cime di rapa — the signature dish everywhere, but particularly good fresh from the Bari Vecchia women
• Focaccia barese — olive oil focaccia topped with cherry tomatoes and olives; eaten for breakfast
• Raw seafood (crudo di mare) at the fish market near the old port
• Burrata — originally from Andria, 60km away; ubiquitous in Bari
• Taralli — ring-shaped crackers flavoured with wine, pepper, or fennel