Bari Vecchia, the white heart
You start here, in the whitewashed maze that is the old town. It’s a city within the city: narrow alleys where front doors stay open, sudden little squares, arches and stairways. The most beautiful thing isn’t a monument but the atmosphere: the women shaping orecchiette on their doorsteps in Arco Basso, the warm bread from the corner bakery, the children playing football within the old walls.
Let yourself get lost: Bari Vecchia is small enough that you won’t truly lose your way, and every wrong turn hands you a view. Living here, in an apartment and not a hotel, is the best way to get inside it at your own pace.
The Basilica of San Nicola and the Cathedral
The Basilica of San Nicola is the spiritual heart of the city and a place of pilgrimage from all over Eastern Europe: Apulian Romanesque in its purest form, a few steps from the sea, with the crypt that holds the saint’s relics. A little further on, the Cathedral of San Sabino is quieter and more intimate: look for the transept window and go down into the crypt.
They’re two stops very close to each other: in one morning you can see them both at a calm pace, surfacing each time into the white light of the alleys.
The seafront, the Margherita and the Petruzzelli
The monumental seafront is Bari’s open-air drawing room: walk it at sunset, when it fills with people out strolling. On the water you’ll find the Margherita Theatre, now a space for exhibitions and events, and just inside the city the Petruzzelli Theatre, one of the largest in Italy, reborn after the 1991 fire.
If you have an extra day, from Bari you can reach Polignano a Mare, Monopoli and Alberobello by train in under an hour: the whole region is within a day trip.
