Bari by Barry

I have been hiding in the weeds, waiting for my opportunity to hit the keyboard and provide my insights on our year in France.  Well, the time has finally arrived for the first guest blog of the year and as luck would have it a visit to Bari, Italy would seem like an opportune time for me to make my debut.

The cruise was definitely one of the highlights of our year so far.  I loved waking up each morning in a new port and then spending the day exploring a new city.  After a few days on the cruise, Ginger thought that she would like to head off on an excursion.  Once I saw the price of the excursion, I decided that wandering the streets of Bari with the girls on a self-guided tour was alright with me.

We said goodbye to Ginger on the dock and the girls and I caught a quick shuttle into the city for our adventure.

Lily and I stoked for our day in Bari!

Remembering our great success in finding an informative (and inexpensive!!) tour in Trieste, we headed to the tourist information office to hopefully benefit from a local tour.  I went into the tourist office and inquired about where I could go for a local pizza tour, the agent smiled and said "Naples."  Whoops, wrong city.  She did give us a run down on things to see and off we went.

One neighourhood in Bari is known for its "Pasta Divas".  These women make pasta in their kitchens and then sell the fresh pasta in the streets just outside their homes.  The girls were quite interested in the process and we purchased some biscuits from one of the ladies.  It was quite a unique setup.  

The windy roads of Bari's old town were a big hit with the girls.  They loved what must be Bari's thinnest house.

I decided to go on my own Pizza tour!

After wandering through the narrow city streets, we visited the Castello Normanno-Svevo.  Grace and Lily know that a visit to a European city inevitably includes a visit to either a ruin or a castle (sometimes even a castle in ruins!!) They are both great sports so into the castle we went.  Built in 1132, it is quite an impressive fortification.

Knowing that her mom would have questions, Lily was all over the signage!

No matter where we go, the girls are always happy to see a cat chillin.

It was then time to head back to the cruise but not before Lily took this picture of Bari's harbour:

I started this entry with a fun snapchat of Lily and me on the bus, so I will end with one of Grace as we made our way back to the Costa Mediterranea.