March 8, 2024

Buona sera. My ferry arrived in Bari on Monday rather early in the morning. I caught a local bus from the port to my hostel and immediately found the closest salumeria/panificio and got a deli meat and mozzarella panino for 2 euros. My Italian favorite. Walking around Bari, listening to the locals talk, soaking in the beauty of the old town, chewing on my mortadella, I felt a wave of homecoming crash over me. It has been simply delightful to be back in Italy the past few days. There is just something about the aesthetic quality of Italy that sings to me in a melody that nowhere else can quite match, and that’s perfectly alright by me. My hostel host told me that most places around here take a siesta from 1 to 5, with some places stretching their break all the way from noon to 6pm, seven days a week. That is proper living! Italian style. 

My work has been relatively chill this week which was nice, especially after a couple of weeks on the (relatively) busier side recently. This flexibility allowed me to make several delicious day trips to different towns up and down the coast of Puglia! Monday I spent exploring Bari and drinking in all its charm. It being my first Italian old town in almost a year, I was especially greedy in my consumption, strutting around the tangle of unevenly cobbled alleys with abandon. There’s one little street where a bunch of Nonna’s all set up little tables to sell the pasta that they made and dried, as well as the local Puglia specialty of Taralli (little donut shaped savory biscuits, 2 bags for 5 euro). Delicious. I also indulge in Bari’s most famous focaccia spot, which was some of the most delicious and oily bread I’ve ever had. Crispy bottom and gooey top, soft tomatoes, grease dripping down my chin. Maybe the best textures I’ve ever had grace my face. I ate it sitting on a bench along Bari’s seaside promenade. A night or two later I returned to the treat of a dramatic lightning storm somewhere in the Adriatic, flexing its lightning dramatically across the horizon. 

One of the other guests at my hostel in Bari was Walter, an older and awesomely flamboyant German man who has been a tour guide in different parts of Italy for decades. He works 24/7 for three months of the year and spends the other 9 months travelling of his own volition, mostly researching new places to do tours. What a freaking life!! It was really interesting to learn about the craft of being a full time tour guide from him. It’s like facilitating a week-long non-stop workshop!  He’s doing some field research for a potential Puglia tour, using Bari as a home base. Lucky for me, he was chock full of tips for amazing day trips, and I gladly obliged! On Tuesday morning I took a little train ride up the coast North to a beautiful town called Barletta where I strolled around, got another salumeria panino, and did my work for the day before returning. On Wednesday I took a TrenItalia (oh how my buttocks missed you, TrenItalia) jaunt south to another gorgeous town called Monopoli. I got my day’s work done in a small cafe there before embarking on an epic lunch break quest that involved walking along about 8 miles of rocky, ragged Italian sea shore. The ground was this coral-like stone scattered with fossilized seashells every few feet. Avery half mile or so I traversed a tiny grotto or alcove with a few dozen feet of sandy beach. The whole time the water was nothing but the most clear green. I arrived in my destination, Polignano a Mare around golden hour (which seems to stretch from about noon to 6pm) to soak in the old town of a city built atop cliffs about 100 feet above a rolling sea. Insane! I took my train back to Bari and had a chill night. 

On Thursday morning (based on Walter’s suggestion) I took a train south to the lovely city of Lecce, where I now sit. The city center is like a massive old town that’s been preserved on the surface but modernized underneath. The town is dotted with ginormous baroque cathedrals and monuments that display some of the most intricate stonework I’ve ever witnessed. Upon arrival I walked around quite a bit, needless to say. I had another chill night (I’ve been feeling a bit run down, I’m trying to bounce back before mom and family and friends time!), and another day of work. After work today (Friday) I bought a ticket that gave me entry to the major baroque sites of the city, and did not regret it! Just so freaking intricate. Look up some photos. 

I’ve got a somewhat busy, somewhat chill weekend planned for myself. Hopefully I can take it easy and be back to being 100% on my feet by the time mom arrives. To be honest I don’t think I’ve really caught up with sleep ever since my 2am zoom call in Macedonia (mostly my own fault), and I think that I will totally just lean into the slow, calm Italian lifestyle to  catch back up. La dolce far niente. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself on this trip, its that my feelings and mental states are almost always just indicators of something else happening with my health. If the tire pressure light comes on, you don’t remove the light from the dashboard- you go get some air. 

Pictures of Lecce Baroque below