Welcome to Bari! This is one of the most important cities in the region! Enjoy the beautiful Italian city and spend some time at the beach overlooking the Adriatic Sea! With all its monuments, museums, and so on, to discover the city and the region!
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🎫 Events
What not to miss?
Basilica of San Nicola
While walking through the city's historical center, you must make a stop at the Basilica of San Nicola. Built in the 11th Century, it is a Romanesque style, with Norman heritage from when they took the city from the Byzantines and built the basilica. With its sober style from the exterior, the inside is maybe also sober, but not as much as the outside, you will discover a beautiful ceiling.
Norman-Swabian castle
Also known as the Houhenstaufen Castle, it was built in 1132 by the Norman king Roger II. Nowadays it is a museum that hosts also expositions that you can admire. You will find copies of sculptures and carvings, and so on.
Bari Underground
You can visit and discover the undergrounds of the beautiful Puglian city, with a guide to tell you with passion all its secrets.
What else to visit?
Trulli of Alberobello
If you have a bit of time during your stay in Bari, we advise you to go to Alberobello, another city of Puglia (1h per car from Bari), where you will see typical houses called Trulli. They are in limestone, with their technic of construction dating from prehistoric times.
Caves of Castellana
Again if you have the time to leave the city to explore a bit more the region, at 40minutes from Bari, you have wonderful natural caves that you can visit, and close to the caves you also have a museum of speleology.
Tip: The caves are 17 minutes by car from Alberobello, so you should dedicate a day to visit both of them.
Pinacoteca Corrado Giaquinto
If you are an art lover, you should go visit the principal museum of the city, where you will see an incredible collection of paints from the south of Italy.
How to travel there?
To go to Bari, you have different options:
You can take the plane, and land at the airport of Bari-Karol Wojtyla, which is the principal airport of the region, and is situated around 10km from the historical center of the city. You can catch a plane from Italy but also internationally with this airport.
You can also take the train to go to Bari Centrale from the rest of the country.
A service of buses is also available, which is a cheap way to go there. But if you are coming from a neighboring country, and you have the possibility to go there by bus, we don’t advise you because the road will be really long and tiring, Bari being in the south of Italy.
Bari being on the East coast of Italy, you can take the ferry to go there. The ferry link Italy with Durres & Vlora (in Albania), Bar (in Montenegro), Dubrovnik (in Croatia), Igoumenitsa & Patras (in Greece), Corfu (in the Ionian Islands) & Sami (in Cephalonia).
And finally, you can go by car.
Average costs
The cost of living in Bari is somewhat lower than in Italy.
For the accommodation, you can find a hotel at more or less 50€ per night for 2 people, and around 70€ for higher quality but still staying at reasonable prices.
As for the food, you can easily have a meal for around 12€ at the restaurant for the cheapest one, but if you search good food quality for not too expensive, you will find restaurants around 25€ per person.
As for the transportation, you can take the bus which will cost you 1,20€ for a single ticket (which lasts 90min), but you can also take a daily ticket at 2,50€ or a pack of 10 tickets at 9€.
When to travel there?
From May to the end of September/ beginning of October, you have good weather in Bari, which makes it the best period to go there.
But if you have the possibility to choose your period of holiday and not go in July / August, when all the tourists are there, we advise you more June and beginning of September, when all the tourists still or start again to work. You will have like that an amazing weather and not a crowded city of tourists. Plus, the prices won’t be as high as July/August, because it won’t be the highest season yet or anymore.
Where to eat?
During your stay, we advise you to go to Biancofiore, a restaurant where you will find Apulian food, and especially fish food.
You can also go to the restaurant Terranima, where you will find traditional recipes.
In Bari, you will find lots of street food, which is something that you have to try. Like Il Focacciaro where you will find amazing focaccia!
To discover the typical food of the region, read our article about what to eat in the Puglia region.
Events
Fiera del levente (September)
This is one of the main Italian fairs. Go to the San Girolamo district and assist to this fair borned in 1929 and which takes place throughout the month of September. Participate in exhibitions, events, trade fairs, seminars, and a range of events such as cooking competitions, make-up competitions, etc.
Fiesta di San Nicola (May)
From the 7 to the 9th of May, participate in the fiesta di San Nicola, and assist in the procession in honor of the saint and a parade of the "Caravella" on the sea.
We hope you enjoyed this article, don’t hesitate to share it and like it. And m-for more articles about the Puglia region, don’t hesitate to read our articles about visiting Lecce and Monopoli. Follow us on Instagram @thewalkingparrot, for more content and be alerted when a new article is coming out.