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Published: June 17th 2012
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We caught up on sleep, internet, packing, then ventured off to the old town of Bari. We took bus 27, right to our destination (actually it went right past it and we had to get off at the next stop). We were trying to check in for the ferry early. We found the port and the agent but were told to come back after 6 pm tonight.
Bari reminds me of Naples. Lots of people hanging around in the old town, industrial, large port, not so clean, lots of graffiti.
We walked around the old town and saw the sights. We skipped the castle since I had been living in one for 2 weeks. We saw the Cattedrale di San Sabino, with its beautiful crypt of blue and gold. The current church is a mix of Romanesque/Byzantine/Baroque, originally built in the late 12th century, on the ruins of a byzantine cathedral destroyed in 1156 by William I of Sicily.
We saw the Basilica di San Nicola, which is an important pilgrimage destination for both Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe. One wedding was just finishing up as we arrived, and
the bride and groom were in the front portico. At the side nave door, the florists were carrying out the pink flowers from the ceremony as others were carting in yellow flowers for the next wedding! Busy day! The couple left in a black Alfa Romero, which impressed Gary!
St. Nicolas was a very important saint for both Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe. He was the patron saint of merchants, sailors, and thieves. Part of his bones were stolen from Turkey and brought here to Bari where he had requested to be buried, and as recently as a few years ago, Turkey still demanded that Italy give them back! Pilgrams from Europe and the East make the journey here to visit his relics. At lunch, we met a young woman from Rumania who had come to Bari for a week to be near St. Nicolas. There is a powerful statue of the saint with his typical “omophor” with 4 crosses, and a beautiful Russian Icon.
We ate lunch at a café, good salad, and bussed back to the Hotel to await the ferry.
Finally, at 6:45, we took
the bus back to the port. The bus trip went well as we had “practiced” in the morning. After a 30 minute walk we found the port. Unfortunately, there is now a NEW ticket office that is located 2 kilometers away from the actual, and we had to go there to check in. Fortunately, they have shuttles to take passengers there. We went to the new office, waited in line 45 minutes to get our boarding passes, stood in the passport line for another 30 minutes for security… finally boarded the ferry at 9:00 pm. It was a very nice ship, and had lots of helpers around. A nice young man helped us get our baggage down 2 decks to the 100 inside level, and promised to show up at 6:30 am to help us back up. That was worth a tip!!! Our compartment is without toilet, but the community one is just down the hall. The beds were really quite comfortable! There are 4 in our compartment, so the suitcases get their own bunk!
We watched the ship disembark for the EAST. Then we had an ok dinner and a good wine in the ship dining
room. We sat on the deck for a while, then went to bed in our bunks.
More pictures below
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chrisstevens
non-member comment
You did well, we had an absolutely disgusting old ferry from Bari to Bar in Montenegro, the Sveti Stefan, dirty, rusty, very little food etc. Plus is was running 6 hours late, so late they didn\'t check our documents on the way into Montenegro!! My kids refused to use the showers on the Sv Stefan. They used to run a Bari-Kotor ferry, I think it\'s been discontinued which is a pity. Bari has nice old quarters and great ice-cream, but the ferry port is hell. For Dover-Calais you just drive straight on, zero waiting. For Calais-Dover you wait maybe 40 minutes. At Bari you queue, wait, queue, wait, and finally queue again and the whole process from joining the first queue to boarding the ferry takes 6 hours.............. unbelievably bad publicity for Italy. I haven\'t tried the reverse journey................