Bearing Up in Bari

Some years ago a spent a few days alone in Bari on Italy’s east coast. I really liked the old harbour town, strolling around its myriad alleyways and eating at little local restaurants.

This week on Netflix we watched a new movie starring Sophia Loren of all people. A very old Sophia Loren, but not less beautiful and wonderful for all that. And it seemed to me to have been filmed somewhere like Bari - or maybe Ancona up the coast.

Needless to say, I consumed an awful lot of seafood during my stay in Bari - and must have polished off an entire reef’s worth of these delicious sea-urchins.

In fact, I’d say anyone who went to Bari and didn’t eat the seafood would be, sort of, missing the main theme.

I had s memorable meal at the Terranima Ristoro Pugliese, in Via Putignani (Bari city centre) - - where I met this delightful Brazilian film-maker and his wife - who told me terrible things about the environmental disasters going on in their country.

But mainly I just walked and walked and ate and ate - and dived in and out of wonderful shops like this one…

The bit everyone likes - me included - is the old town, knowns as the Barivecchia - it is situated on a headland between two harbour areas. Surrounded by narrow streets, the 11th-century Basilica di San Nicola, is the main pilgrimage site because it contains some remains said to be from the body of St. Nicholas.