Puglia, plus a bit of Rome. Part 1. Bari and Bitonto
Due to COVID, you won’t get out to Italy soon, so at least remember.
Last year, in October, S7 dropped the price of air tickets to Bari, but while my wife and I figured out what and how, the price of the return flight has already jumped again. Then we decided to fly to Bari on S7, and then move to Rome and fly from there on Ural Airlines. So the price turned out to be the cheapest.
For a long time they wanted to go to Puglia, but somehow it didn’t work out, they bought tours twice, but twice the trips were canceled due to a shortage of people who wanted to. Finally, in 2017, I managed to go on the "Southern Italy" tour with "Natalie Tours" (my report is on the website), from Naples to Lecce,
Southern Italy is simply magnificent, after that we decided to visit these places thoroughly on our own. In 2018 we arrived for a week in Naples and its environs, and last year in Puglia.
We chose Bari, the capital of Puglia, as the first base city for traveling around the surrounding areas.
We were in Bari with an excursion, but the visit to the city was rather short, so I wanted to visit Bari when there are no tourists.
You can get from the airport to the city in different ways: by express bus (4 euros), by train (5 euros, 15 minutes to the railway station) or by the most ordinary bus route 16. The bus is the cheapest option (1.50 euros from the driver), it takes about 40 minutes to get to the railway station.
For accommodation in Bari (3 nights), we chose accommodation in the Old Town. The apartment was located on the ground floor of an old house. . .
. . . earlier in the room, apparently, there were warehouses, but then the owners rebuilt it into a room. The room is designed for five people, but in the off-season it was rented at a low price. There was everything you need - a toilet, a shower, a refrigerator, kitchen utensils.
In addition, the thick walls protected well from the heat, because October turned out to be hot.
Our house was next to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, 25 minutes walk to the railway station.
When we arrived, the room was still being cleaned by my aunt, who lives next door. We left our things and went to the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Basilica di San Nicola).
Near the cathedral, a statue by Tsereteli, a gift from Russia.
We visited the temple last year, on Thursday, when a service was held by Orthodox priests in Russian. There were a lot of people who wanted to venerate the slab under which the relics of St. Nicholas are located, which is located in the crypt of the cathedral. Our tourists are brought to the service from all over Italy. Here is a photo from the last visit to the cathedral:
On this day, the service was conducted in Georgian. There were much fewer people and we managed to get to the saint's grave without any problems.
And this statue of St. Nicholas is carried every year by the townspeople through the streets of Bari:
The reliquary of the church contains many shrines, such as a thorn from a crown of thorns and a piece of the Holy Sepulcher:
It is interesting that initially the relics of St. Nicholas, which were brought from the city of Mir (now the territory of Turkey) in 1087, they wanted to place in the cathedral, but the bulls stood on the site of the future temple and did not want to move on. The townspeople saw this as a sign and built the current temple on this site (1087-1105). Bull statues stand at the western entrance to the temple.
But for some reason, there are monkeys at the northern entrance near the door:
The architecture of the cathedral is made in the Norman style, characteristic of many temples in Puglia and Calabria, since by the end of the 11th century the south of Italy was conquered by the Normans. Unlike baroque temples, there are almost no murals, paintings on the walls and other "beauties" here.
The transverse partitions also have an engineering function, so that the walls do not "fold". 17th century baroque ceiling.
One of the pillars of the temple in Mirs, where St. Nicholas served. According to legend, this miraculous column helps girls get married. Now it is fenced in.
Ancient throne and ciborium of 1130:
Back in the room and having a snack, we decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the city of Bitonto. Bari is a very convenient city for a basic tour of Puglia, because.
it stands at the intersection of several railway lines. In fact, there are four stations in Bari at once, located not far from each other. All of them are located on the same Aldo Moro square, where the fountain and the university building are located.
The main railway station is quite large (20 platforms), it is located almost in the center of the city, intercity high-speed trains pass and stop through it. Trains from Foggia to Lecce also stop there. Bari itself with its surroundings is a rather elongated city along the coast, in which there are 10 railway stations.
From the Appulo-Lucane train station, there are electric trains to Basilicata, including Matera.
Bari-Nord North Station links Bari with the airport, Bitonto, Barletta and Andria
From Ferrovie del Sud-Est South Station you can get to Alborabello and further to Taranto.
Near the spire of the Immaculate Conception:
In the evening it was quite dark inside the cathedral, so I give some photos with good quality from the Internet:
On the way back, we wanted to buy food for the evening, but there was a holiday in the city and the shops were closed. It's good that you guessed to ask the policeman, he explained to us that only the LIDL supermarket is open, on the other side of the city behind the railway. Where we went with great pleasure and stocked up on food and wine for all three days in Bari.
Back to the train station, we walked through a food fair that sprawled along the railroad along the way, tasting fine Italian products.
We returned to Bari quite late. Thus passed the first day of our journey.
Continued here >>>
