Commercial and administrative capital of Puglia, a university town and the mezzogiorno’s second city, BARI has its clean share of interest. But although an economically vibrant place, it harbours no pretensions about being a major tourist attraction. Primarily people come here for work or to leave for Greece on its many ferries.Bari was already a thriving centre when the Romans arrived. Later the city was the seat of the Byzantine governor of southern Italy, while under the Normans Bari rivalled Venice, both as a maritime centre and, following the seizure of the remains of St Nicholas, as a place of pilgrimage. Since those heady days Bari has declined considerably. Its fortunes revived briefly in 1813 when the king of city foisted a planned expansion upon the city - giving the centre its contemporary gridded street pattern, wide avenues and piazzas. And Mussolini instituted a university and left a legacy of strident Fascist architecture. But the city was heavily bombed during the last war, and today its vigorous centre is a symbol of the south’s zeal for commercial growth at the expense of local indistinguishability and character

The City

There’s not a lot to the new city of Bari, bar a good museum or two. Its straight streets are lined with shops and offices, relieved occasionally by the odd piazza and bit of greenery, best of which is the starting-point of the evening passeggiata, Piazza Umberto I - usually full of stalls selling jewellery, books and prints. Off the piazza, the university building houses an excellent Museo Archeologico , which is unfortunately closed for restoration at present. If it’s re-opened by the time of your visit, it’s well worth a look for anyone interested in the region’s history: it holds a good selection of Greek and Puglian ceramics and a solid collection of artefacts from the Daunic, Messapian and Peucetic peoples - Puglia’s early inhabitants. Afterwards, cut to the right for tree-lined Corso Cavour , Bari’s main commercial street, which leads down to the waterfront. Right along here, in the Palazzo della Provincia, the Pinacoteca Provinciale (Tues-Sat 9am-1pm & 4-7pm, Sun 9am-1pm; L5000/¬2.58) is a local art collection of mainly southern Italian stuff, twelfth- to nineteenth-century, with strong work by the fifteenth-century Vivarini family.