Bari - Italy

Trani

The ferry to Bari was very interesting. I never got asked where I wanted to be on the ship and was just given a ticket to the deck. It ends up that the deck is just a big room with chairs and tables where people just hang out, talk and, and..and, do really nothing else but to wait to get to Bari the next morning. I sat with Amy and Rowin, we opened the bottle of wine and soon started talking to Chris, another guy from Canada, who joined us for the remainder of the trip to Bari. Chris is doing a one year tour around the world and he is not only visiting countries in Europe (including the newly nation of Kosovo and other not so politically stable places) but he has been also to the Middle East and will be traveling later on to Australia.

My bed for one night - Arrival into Bari

We arrived in Bari at 8 o’clock in the morning. I was dead tired as I only slept a couple of hours on an improvised bed (8 chairs put together to create a “bed”). I had woken up around 6:30 AM after the number of people walking up and down the deck (my bedroom) increased and the noise became too much for me to tune out. I got some coffee at the ferry’s cafeteria and met up again with the rest of the group to see and take pictures of our arrival into Italy. From the port I took a taxi together with Amy and Rowin. They got off at the Basilica and I went on to the train station where my friend Francesca was waiting for me. I met Francesca at the German course in Munich and she had invited me over to spend some days at her home in Trani (a city about 40 minutes by train from Bari). We got to her house and her mother was waiting for us with a big and delicious home cooked Italian meal: antipasti (ham, cheese, bread), patate e riso al forno, salad, chicken, strawberries, chocolate and biscuits. After lunch I was able to take like a 3 hour nap and recharge my batteries. Francesca’s mother is everything that you would imagine an Italian mother to be: protective, funny, talkative, and an excellent cook. During my stay she gave me so much food I almost did not have to eat for the remainder of the trip. She did not allow me to help in any “house chores” like picking up my plates from the table and doing my bed in the morning. She even helped me blow dry my hair one morning because it was too cold outside and she would not allow me to go outside with my hair wet and maybe catch a cold. In the mornings she would wake us up and breakfast would be already served. In other words I was totally spoiled by her….and as you can imagine I loved it. After waking up from the nap we went for a walk of Trani with one of Francesca’s friend who is studying tourisms. She gave me a very detailed tour of the city. Trani is also known as the city of the 100 churches. I’m not sure if it does have that many but I sure did see a lot of them. On the most part they were all very small churches except for the Cathedral. That night we drove about 20 minutes to a nearby town where 2 other friends of mine from the German course were meeting us for dinner. We went to a pizza place where they served a very good and big pizza. It was great to share with my Italian friend again. I love Italian people. They are sooooo friendly and nice. They all make you feel super comfortable and will do anything to make your stay in their hometown as pleasant as possible. My friend’s boyfriend for example even brought a book about Italy with him to the pizza place and he sat next to me so that he could show me all the pictures of Puglia (the region of Italy where Bari is located) and tell me all about the history and the costumes of the area. That is just an example of Italian hospitality.

With Francesca in Trani

The next morning, after having a hefty breakfast, we walked a little bit around Trani again and then took the train to Bari around lunchtime. My friends go to the university there and we met after their class for lunch and for a tour of Bari. I was really looking forward to going to the St. Nicholas Basilica in Bari as it is supposed to be the place where St. Nick’s remains are buried and also because there is a sculpture that Rowin talked to me about a lot as he had to study it in detail for his thesis. Unfortunately the basilica was closed (I’m going to have return to Bari in the future) and instead we headed to the Castello Sevo (Seveven Castle); a fortress dating back to 1131 which is now used to hold temporary exhibitions. In the late afternoon we headed back home to Bari for yet another home cooked Italian meal. That night my friend had a salsa class and I went with her, only as an observer. I love to watch these salsa classes in Europe. And I have to say I was very impressed. They danced very well. They could follow the rhythm. It did not seems as if they were only following a sequence of memorized moves. It seemed as if they really felt the music; something totally opposite from my same experience (going to a salsa class) in Germany. Everyone in the class was super nice to me, even though I just sat on a chair and watched them dance. They all came to talk to me to find out why I was there, how much I was staying, how much I liked Trani, etc etc. As far as communicating with them it wasn’t that bad. Since Italian and Spanish are so similar I talked to them in Spanish and they talked to me in Italian. I also used the 25 words I know in Italian from time to time, other times I Italianized a Spanish word but most of the times I used my friend as the translator. It was a mixture of languages that left my head spinning and very confused.

Night out - Castello Svevo with the whole gang

The next morning I embarked very early on another one of those extremely long days I often have to get from point A to point B. I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning and Francesca's mother made me some coffee and gave me some cereal and biscuits for breakfast. In addition she made 2 paninis for me to take on my long journey together with some juice and some fruits. As a matter of fact when she learned about how long the next day was going to be for me she got al nervous and wanted to go back to the bakery to buy more bread so she could make me more paninis. Very sweet of her. At 6:40 AM I took the 40 minute train to Bari. At 7:30 AM I took a 5 hour long train from Bari to Rome. Rome is city where I was catching a plane to Sevilla, but not only 8:40 at night. I had a long layover in Rome but I rather have that than take the risk of the next train from Bari being delayed to Rome and then missing my flight. Since I had so many hours to kill in Rome I left my luggage at the storage place in the train station and went on a 4 hour walking search of a Mascarpone ice cream throughout the city. I looked for it by the St. Maria Maggiore Church, the Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Navona, The Spanish Steps, Piazza Venezia, Via del Corso and many other little streets next to these famous places. But no luck; I did not find it and I could not remember where I had it the last time I was in Rome. Around 5:30 in the afternoon I ran back to the train station and got a little bit lost, which caused me to walk past the Coliseum…not a bad view to glance at when you are lost. I found my way and got back to the train station around 6 o’clock. I picked up my bags and took the 40 minute Express train to the airport to catch then my nonstop flight to Sevilla, where I arrived dead tired at 11 o’clock at night.

Rome: Piazza Novona - Spanish Steps ...

and no Mascarpone ice cream