It is another beautiful day in oh-so-charming Bari. The sun is out, the sky is a cloudless blue, and the breeze off the Adriatic is borderline jacket worthy if you are walking along the water. On the other hand, inside the labyrinth of the old town you really do get shelter from the wind.
Yesterday, Thursday night, the streets were packed with Italians doing their passeggiata with the added spice of kids, and some adults, in Halloween attire. Candy for the kids was supplied by the stores lining Via Sparano da Bari, the Rodeo-drive-like pedestrian-only street that runs between the train station and the edge of the old city.
The plan today was to take a morning train to the town of Matera. We failed at that. The train to Matera, you see, isn't via Trenitalia, the big Italian train company. And it isn't the upstart Italo. It's Ferrovie Appulo Lucane and, it turns out, they don't run today even though their ticket-selling machine was happy to take our euros and spit out tickets for a non-existent 10:05 to Matera. Fortunately they are cheap tickets.
I had searched holidays in Italy before we left home so I knew today was All Saints' Day but it didn't register to me as a real holiday, one where trains get cancelled. Once again I am reminded to beware those assumptions.
Instead we headed for Museo Civico Bari, which turned out to be closed. Then we walked to the other end of the old town for a visit to Museo Archeologico di Santa Scolastica. Also closed. Sigh. Instead we amused our eyes by wandering the narrow streets.
We then strolled along the city wall and later the promenade, known as the Lungomare, both of which offer views of the Adriatic Sea and, of course, all sorts of watercraft, from large ferries to paddle boards.
We got a good laugh at one sight, and we weren't alone with being amused. While we were walking atop a piece of the old city wall, which parallels the Lungomare, we heard and then sighted a large man running down the promenade, yelling at full volume—and being Italian, we are talking eardrum-splitting volume—his hands flailing around him. Is he having an argument on his cell phone? But we saw no phone. Was he just nuts? Yes, perhaps that is it. But then we saw someone in the water, swimming briskly. Ahh, the man was yelling encouraging words to a person who was swimming laps in the sea. Cheap entertainment for a lot of us.
