Hotel Vecchio Mulino

Anchors away!

by karenincalifornia

This was the best part of my trip to Bari.

The ferry ride from Bar, Montenegro to Bari, Italy is an overnight trip with an estimated arrival time at Bari of 7:00 am. When our ferry was about one hour outside Bari, I woke up, showered in the nice little shower we had in our cabin, then went upstairs to the cafeteria and ordered a Turkish coffee. I took my Turkish coffee out to the back deck and soaked in the warm early morning Mediterranean sun. This was so pleasant, I was almost sorry when it was announced that we were about to arrive at port.

Basilica of S. Nicola: The Interior. 4

by hquittner

The nave and aisles are divided by marble columns with well carved capitals. 3 plain transverse arches add support. The ceiling is flat and has Baroque paintings. There is a large gallery above the aisles. A simple choir screen with 2 capital topped columns separates off the chancel which contains a fine ciborium. Behind this, difficult to see, is the fine 16C monument to Bona Sforza (once Queen of Poland and Duchess of Bari). Its sarcophagus is black, the rest is carved white marble.At one side is the magnificently sculpted Bishop's Throne (11C), supported by suffering Atlantes struggling to uplift the penitent (or a very fat bishop?).At the other side a space is reserved containing Eastern Orthodox icons for such pilgrims

Nice to visit

by hquittner

"Why and how we saw Bari"

YT lists 36 local members(!), none of whom describe this large (350K+ pop) successful industrial-port city. We were "in" Bari 3 times in 2 weeks (arriving and departing from the Airport for a stay at Matera and for a 2-hr morning visit on a day tour to Norman buildings in Puglia with an Elderhostel group. VTers have submitted 86 "tips" on Bari, but almost all of them concern the port (a way in or out); most of the others are misplaced about other places or how to get out of Bari. There are less than 10 ABOUT BARI!!
Bari has a prosperous modern part but it is the Citta Vecchia and its antiquities that are worth a visit. Unfortunately in the time we spent we only briefly glimpsed the outside of the interesting 12C (later modified and expanded) Castle(with a good museum) and spent our whole time at the church of S. Nicola, not even visiting the Cathedral.

"The Down side"

Bari has a reputation for being a non-tourist town and they are only nominally interested in tourism. Like Naples it is all living and business full of traffic and perhaps dangerous to wander in.

"The future?"