Bari

Bari is a Puglian port with an old town on a peninsula, an airport inside the city and a train to the station in 15 min, which makes it a natural base for the whole region. What sets it apart from the rest of Puglia is a street where pasta is still made by hand, in front of passers-by.

The walk begins in Bari Vecchia, on the peninsula between the two harbours. It is a tightly knotted core of narrow streets where the basilica, the cathedral and the castle stand side by side, and walking the core itself is free. On Via Arco Basso women make orecchiette at tables outside their houses; fresh pasta is bought by the kilo, €5–7 (1 kg), and it is the quickest way to see what this city lives on.

From the pasta street everything is close. The Basilica of Saint Nicholas was begun in 1087, when the saint's relics were brought from Myra, and consecrated in 1197; since the fall of the Iron Curtain pilgrims from eastern Europe come more and more often. Entry is free, and the hours are Mon–Sat 6.30–20.30, Sun 6.30–22 (crypt closes during mass). The Cathedral of Saint Sabinus is Romanesque, built in the last decades of the twelfth century, and its crypt holds the relics of Sabinus, brought here in 844. It keeps these hours: Mon–Sat 8.30–12.30 and 16.30–19; Sun and holidays 9–13 and 16–19.30, which means it closes over midday and is visited in the morning or towards evening.

The Norman-Swabian Castle is the next stop, €6, reduced €2 (€9/€3.50 during exhibitions); the day it is closed is Tuesday. Beyond the old core the city changes: Murat is the quarter that Joachim Murat laid out in 1813, a rectangular grid of streets with a promenade on the sea. In the Teatro Petruzzelli, opened in 1903, burned in 1991 and rebuilt in 2009, a guided tour of the foyer and stalls is €5 (guided tour of the foyer and stalls), and booking is recommended. The day ends on the Lungomare, the long promenade along the Adriatic, and the Corrado Giaquinto Picture Gallery waits for rain or for midday.