Bari, Apulia, ItalyWho knew it could be so difficult finding pizza in Italy?! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Friday morning we were due for a little beach time. Just down the Lungomare, in the opposite direction from the old town, is a very nice sandy beach called Pane e Pomodoro (Bread and Tomato), which is what people used to bring for lunch at the beach. It is a very nice beach, but not terribly long, and is very popular and thus crowded. But it does have very good sand--a lot of Italian "beaches" are pebbles. Anyway the crowds make for some interesting people-watching.
After a few hours in the sun, we headed back to the apartment and thought we would go somewhere right in the neighbourhood for pizza for lunch. There was a place right around the block, but we discovered that they only do pizza in the evening, so we started wandering in towards the old town, checking out restaurants along the way. Well, there were all kinds of different foods, from Greek to Japanese, along the way, and even a few that did seem to serve pizza, but only in the evening. Never really noticed on previous visits to Italy that pizza for lunch is not a "thing". Anyway, just outside the old town, we got to a row of large restaurants along the main road that were clearly catering to tourists and at one, Alterno, had a couple of very good Napoli-style pizze. Not as good as Napoli, of course, but close!
The rest of the day we just chilled out. Had a nap, watched a taped ballgame and had a light dinner of prosciutto and cheeses with bread while watching a movie on YouTube (can't get any real channels on TV).
Saturday morning we headed over to an area of the old town that we hadn't been to yet to check out The Castello Normanno-Svevo and the nonnas (grandmas) making the famous Bari orecchiette (pasta) in the Arco Basso laneway nearby. The castle was interesting but not spectacular and the interior museum seems to be an unfinished work in progress. The ladies shaping the pastas were very impressive, just a subtle flick of the wrist with the knife and it's an "ear". Repeat 10,000 times daily! We bought a half kilo bag but haven't tried it yet.
We then wandered over to the nearby cathedral (Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana). The church itself is not as impressive as San Nicola, but the archeological dig and exhibition underneath is very impressive. Amazing how, over the years, one church can be completely lost and another one built over top of where it had been, and only discovered years (or centuries) later. Then a very nice light lunch of "Pane e Pomodoro" and burrata at a tiny deli restaurant and back home to recharge before heading out in search of panzerotti for dinner tonight. I haven't mentioned the weather yet, but it has been well over 30C every day here and it is nice to relax in the A/C in the apartment after being out in the heat for a few hours. I'm definitely getting old!
2025-02-17