The FlixBus from Naples to Bari was easy, on time, cheaper and faster than the train. Felt akin to the Megabus. The trickiest part was finding the pickup spot at the sprawling Napoli central train station. We had an address that didn’t really exist. It would have been simpler to tell us the stop is at the “bus terminal” (so labeled ) next to the train station. The bus departed on time. It was a three hour trip, one hour shorter than the train, which also required a connection.
While the bus was fine, renting a car was unexpectedly not fine but more about that another time. We did eventually get a car, after an excellent lunch of local cold cuts and cheeses at mercantile nove, at the edge of Bari’s old town (Bari Vecchia), in piazza mercantile near the Adriatic.
Next: a rather stressful drive southwest of Bari in the drizzle to a small village Borgo Lamie di Olimpia about Five km north of Locorotondo where we finally found the trulli (a traditional conical-shaped building) Airbnb that we are staying in for a few days. thank god for a rare business and landmark, Bar Lamie, where we met our Airbnb proprietor, who walked us about a block to our trulli. Later, D and I walked in the drizzle back to the bar where we were greeted by some gregarious locals and had a well-deserved Peroni.
A day later, we drove to two beautiful hill stop ancient cities, Locorotondo and Martina Franca.
Both towns are lovely, high on a hilltop with white buildings lining narrow passageways opening into piazzas. We got lost a lot.
Finding the old part of town is often tricky. We tried following “Centrale storico” or bullet signs but they often disappeared. then we got lost rambling through the tiny found our car…and information offices with free city maps.)
Parking was another issue. Yet again we encountered parking meter machines that didn’t work. One took our money but failed to give us a slip to put on our dash. We learned that spots with blue lines means you must pay to park; white lines are free, and yellow lines require a parking permit. We also learned how to decipher what hours we do or don’t have to pay in a blue line spot. (In Martina Franca we spent about a half hour trying to get the parking machine to work, long enough that it became 1 p.m. when parking switched to free until 4 pm.)
We had a lovely lunch at Garibaldi Bistrot/restaurant in the piazza overlooking the huge baroque church in Martina Franca, founded in the 10th century and famed for Baroque buildings. Delicious Pasta with local mushrooms in a light cheese/cream sauce and spaghetti in a red sauce with fresh tuna, capers, olives.
In the late afternoon we drove about 35 minutes south to a grittier town famous for ceramics called Grottaglie, near the Ioanian sea side of Puglia. We finally found a parking spot right in front of the best known ceramics shop (on a street lined with shops) Nicola Fasano, where we bought two contemporary pieces (not the traditional Italian ceramics.) Even bettter, the owner, who comes from a long line of ceramicist owners took us and a few others on a tour of the manufacturing shop in nearby caves. He told us he’s been hard hit by Chinese copycats, and now works particularly hard to produce original pieces not easy copied. At one point he sat at a spinning wheel that he used to decorate several plates, sort of like an old fashioned Spirograph or spatter art. It was mesmerizing. I later learned from a Vogue Australia article that the shop’s customers have included Francis Ford Coppola and Armani.
TakeBetsywithyou 