Thinking about how draggy I was yesterday, it occurred to me that a rest day might be a good idea. The walk to Bari didn’t look very interesting either - olive groves and suburbs. So I took the train.
It was an easy 30 minute ride in to Bari where I have a nice hotel room in the more modern shopping area. Two bookshops within two blocks of my hotel! Shopping streets are wide and lined with large buildings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. And the sea is always close at hand.
The austere exterior of St Nicolas.
An ancient painting of St Nicolas embellished by a later bejeweled “frame” all around his head.
I sat for a long while in the crypt before the altar built over his bones. A steady trickle of people came by. Some stayed a long while at prayer. Some snapped a photo or two and stood for a few minutes looking around. Some looked a bit bored and just walked through, or else had their nose in an electronic guide book. Fresh flowers decorated the altar, and a man came to prepare for an eventual service. The Saint was kept company well.
The Cathedral here is also a beautiful medieval Romanesque building. It is easy to see how a region and a time period develop an architectural model to be reproduced in various places!
The Castle in Bari is ancient as well. First built in Roman times, it was completely rebuilt in in the 11th century, and then again in the 13th century under the famous Emperor Frederick II. Then the Anjou rulers and finally the 17th century Aragon rulers reworked the fortifications to withstand more modern armaments.
Wandering through the old city, I came across a street where families are still making and selling a centuries old pasta, orecchie, or little ears (from its shape). I bought some to cook at a later date, and then at a restaurant had some dressed with bitter greens and olive oil for supper.
So often the streets seem empty of people - until 7 pm when they start to fill up. Here is the scene outside my hotel door.
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