Michelle's Travel Adventures

May 14

Today we depart for Puglia and we couldn’t be more excited!  Our flight out of Charlottetown is at noontime, which is lovely because I hate a crack of dawn flight, it just ruins the vibes.  However… it does not mean that there weren’t a few hurdles to jump this morning.  An hour before leaving for the airport Stephen realized he hadn’t renewed his international drivers license. We also hadn’t heard back from the bank yet about the euros we’d ordered.  So while he dashed off to CAA for his driver’s license, I went to the bank to check on the status of our euro order.  Everything worked out in the end, Stephen got his license, our Euros just arrived in that morning, and we made it to the airport with plenty of time for check in!  Our flight route had us connecting through Toronto and then on to Munich.  Stephen and I were booked into Premium Economy and the girls were seated in the row behind us in economy preferred seats.

May 15

We arrived in Munich the following morning.  The views of Munich on our descent in were really beautiful.  It was a patchwork of gorgeous green fields.  It really made me want to come back for an actual visit to this area of Germany.  Everyone we talked to prior to our trip had horror stories about how confusing the airports are in Germany.  I can only say that the Munich airport was easy to navigate and we didn’t have any issues finding our gate.  From Munich we were flying with Air Dolomiti to Bari, Italy.  We arrived in Bari at about noon time.  All our bags arrived with no issues.  It was fairly easy to find the Avis rental car depot (exit the terminal, turn left and walk past the parking lot and the rental is in front, across the street).  And within an hour of landing we were loaded (totally squished) into our rental car and heading into the city of Bari for our first night!

On our drive into Bari, I have to say that I felt a little disconnected, I couldn’t place what I was seeing through the car windows with the region.  It felt like I didn’t know or couldn’t place where I was.  Which sounds weird because if it’s your first time visiting a place, that’s probably how you should feel.  But it just didn’t match up with the pictures and videos that I saw during my many hours of planning.  UNTIL we made it into the Bari city center.  Our airBnb was actually in a very nice, upscale retail area of the newer part of the city.  You know you’re in an upscale area when Prada and LV are just around the corner!  Our host was kind enough to allow us an early check in, which went seamlessly, except for finding parking…but that could also have been blamed on our jet lag and exhaustion.  We ended up dropping our bags off and Makena stayed at the condo while Stephen, Macy and I found a garage parking and walked back.

After quickly getting settled and a little freshen up, we could not wait to get out and explore Bari!  We headed to Bari Vecchia first (the old section of the city).  The Teste di Moro ceramic vases are very popular in Puglia. We saw a lot of them in shop windows. If they look familiar to you, you might have seen them in season 2 of the White Lotus.

We grabbed lunch at La Puccia and ate it out in the piazza.  We got tomato and olive focaccia, and a couple different types of puccia, which is kind of like a sandwich pocket.  I think we ended up with a kale, a tomato and cheese (my fav) and a tuna (not my fav).  The puccia bread was delicious and so was the focaccia.  

After lunch we took turns rubbing the Lion’s head at the Piazza Mercantile, legend has it that you rub the lion for good luck.  We’re definitely not passing up any chances for some good luck! Apparently this square was also the place where debtors were once chained to the column beside the lion for public shaming. I bet they were wishing for better luck…

Then we walked down to the waterfront to check out the boats (always a hit with Stephen) and then to the Basilica of St Nicholas.  This is actually a pilgrimage site for many Catholics and Orthodox Christians. The church was built in 12th century, specifically to house the relics of Saint Nicholas (the saint who inspired Santa Claus!)

Then we headed to Arco Basso, which is where I was personally most excited to see. Arco Basso is an entire stretch of alleyway, which you enter under a low stone-arched passage, and is lined with nonnas making fresh orecchiette. Also nicknamed Street of the Orecchiette, these elderly women make fresh pasta by hand every day. You can watch their handiwork and skill and of course you bags of fresh orecchiette pasta and taralli.

We were just nearing the end of pasta tables and it started to rain so we headed back to our Airbnb and decided to shower and freshen up for our dinner tonight. 

We’re very excited to be going to L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele Bari.  It is the 2nd location of the famous pizzeria in Naples that was featured in the movie Eat Pray Love.  We got the margherita and a pizza that was a special for Mother’s Day. Both were mind blowingly incredible. 

After dinner we took a walk (despite the wind and rain) to Piazza Del Ferrarese which was all lit up and beautiful. Perfect ending to our first night in Bari (well we could have done without the wind and rain).