A spring afternoon in the city

Taking advantage of the splendid first Sunday of spring and accepting the FAI's invitation to rediscover the most hidden corners of our cities, we make our way into the oldest part of Bari, close to the port and made up of a maze of little streets in an oriental "casbah" style. As in the Arab quarters, here too there are little shops with all kinds of goods, and in the square at the entrance to the old town, an industrial quantity of pubs and venues of every kind. Above all we are won over by the gardens of the more prominent little houses, true hidden pearls, and by the smaller churches, well worth visiting on Maundy Thursday, when every church competes to be the most beautiful in the display of the Blessed Sacrament.

From the old quarter we move to the centre, along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, to visit an exhibition hosted by the Palazzo della Prefettura, a former majestic convent acquired by Ferdinand of Bourbon in 1812 and, since the Unification of Italy, a prefecture office. From the seafront we push on to San Giorgio, a small hamlet of Bari from where we spot a little cove filled with fishermen's boats. To head back we comically push north and, taking the SS16, exit towards Modugno and carry on along the former SS98 to reach Bitonto, a large farming town about 19 km from Bari. The Romanesque cathedral and the bishop's palace, the recently restored theatre, the corso hosting a classic car rally are the focus of our attention, along with a pastry shop that gives away at a very low price (60 euro cents) some tasty "conchiglie", puff-pastry sweets filled with chantilly cream.

Definitely a beautiful spring Sunday!