BARI Airport is well connected to the following airports:
• ROMA Fiumicino FCO (8 flights/day)
• Milano Malpensa MXP (3 flights/day)
• Milano Linate LIN (5 flights/day)
• Munich (Germany) (2 flights/day)
We
strongly recommend to use TAXI or AUTOBUS TEMPESTA From the
airport to the City Center (Railway Station-Piazza Moro)
BUS
AMTAB n° 16 (usually orange colored)
One trip every 60 minutes from 5.00 to 23.00.
Trip time: 35 / 40 minutes
Ticket cost: € 0.77
AUTOBUS
TEMPESTA (usually blue colored)
Frequency: Please see at the enclosed timetables.
Trip time: 25 / 30 minutes
Ticket cost: € 4.13
CAR
RENTAL
• AUTOSERVIZI MAGGIORE
Phone: +39-080-5316180
Web: www.maggiore.it
• AVIS
Phone: +39-080-5316168
Web: www.avisautonoleggio.it
• HERTZ
Phone: +39-080-5316168
Web: www.hertz.it
TAXI
Aeroporto Palese - Tel. 080-373358
Via Aeroporto Civile Palese - Tel. 080-5316166
Cost: around 25€. Consider doubled costs for night trip.
Other info: Further information about Bari and Apulia can
be found by visiting the following websites:
Touristic
information on Bari and Puglia: http://www.inmedia.it/Puglia/eng/
Window on Apulia: http://www.mi.cnr.it/WOI/deagosti/regions/puglia.html
Alberobello: http://whc.unesco.org/sites/787.htm
Gastronomy: http://www.copuglia.it/copuglia_eng/gastronomia.htm
Wine in Apulia: http://www.winebow.com/show_regionproducers.asp?region=24
Alitalia – www.alitalia.com
Trains – www.trenitalia.it
AUTOBUS
TEMPESTA TIMETABLES (usually blue colored)
| Start
from |
Departure
time |
Arrival
time |
Last
stop |
Airport |
05.55 |
06.15 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
06.50 |
07.25 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
08.45 |
09.15 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
10.30 |
11.00 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
11.35 |
12.00 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
12.30 |
13.00 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
12.45 |
13.15 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
14.35 |
15.05 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
16.00 |
16.25 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
17.00 |
17.25 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
18.20 |
18.50
|
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
19.20 |
19.50 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
21.10
** |
21.40 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
21.40 |
22.10 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
22.15 |
22.45 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
Airport |
23.30 |
23.50 |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
**
Sunday excluded
|
Start
from |
Departure
time |
Arrival
time |
Last
stop |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
05.30 |
5.55 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
06.20 |
06.50 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
07.45 |
08.15 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
09.40 |
10.10 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
10.30
|
11.00 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
11.20 |
11.45 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
12.00 |
12.30 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
13.30 |
14.00 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
15.00 |
15.30 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
16.10 |
16.40 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
17.40 |
18.10 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
18.30** |
19.00 |
Airport |
Railway
Station (P.zza A. Moro) |
18.45
*** |
19.15 |
Airport |
**
Sunday excluded
*** Sunday only
Location
of the three suggested Hotels and the Meeting Room downtown
in Bari.
As
you can see from the map, the center of Bari is made on a
gridded street pattern, so, in general, is very easy to find
you right way.
Meeting Location
Technical University of Bari
Block 47, Via Lamberti, 16, Old Town
70100 Bari (BA)
Italy
url: http://www.chimera.it/inmezzo/isola47_intro.htm
The meeting rooms will be equipped
with microphones and with a projector (Windows and Power Point
Software).
General
information about Bari
Commercial
and administrative capital of Puglia, a university town and
the mezzogiorno's second city, BARI has its fair 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 Naples 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 identity
and character.
The City
There's not a lot to the new city of Bari, but 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
earliest 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.
The old city
Even if you're only in Bari to catch a ferry, try to make
time for a wander around the old city, an entrancing jumble
of streets at the far end of Corso Cavour that's possibly
the most confusing place to walk around in southern Italy.
Its labyrinth of seemingly endless passages weaving through
courtyards and under arches was originally designed to spare
the inhabitants from the wind and throw invaders into a state
of confusion. This it still does admirably, and even with
the best of maps you're going to get lost. Life is lived very
much outdoors, and on summer evenings, it's full of people
sitting outside their kitchen doors.
Specific sights are few. The Basilica di San Nicola (daily
9am–1pm & 4–7pm; museum Tues–Fri 10am–noon),
in the heart of the old city, was consecrated in 1197, as
an inscription at the side of the main door testifies, to
house the relics of the saint plundered a century earlier
from southern Turkey. From the outside it all looks thoroughly
Norman, especially the twin fortress-like towers, but it's
a misleading impression: the right-hand tower predates the
church, the other was added later for balance, and even the
simple nave is shattered by three great arches and an ornate
seventeenth-century ceiling. The real beauty of the church
lies in its stonework: the twelfth-century altar canopy is
one of the finest in Italy, the motifs around the capitals
the work of stonemasons from Como; and the twelfth-century
carved doorway and the simple, striking mosaic floor behind
the altar are lovely, prey to a very heavy Saracen influence.
Best of all is the twelfth-century episcopal throne behind
the altar, a superb piece of work supported by small figures
wheezing beneath its weight. Down in the crypt are the remains
of the saint, patron of pawnbrokers and sailors (and of Russians,
who made the pilgrimage here until 1917). Behind the tomb-altar,
the richly decorated fourteenth-century icon of the saint
was a present from the King of Serbia.
It's not far from the basilica to Bari's other important church,
the Cattedrale di San Sabino (daily 8.30am–1pm &
4–7pm), off Piazza Odegitria, dedicated to the original
patron saint of Bari, before he was usurped by Nicholas, and
built at the end of the twelfth century. It's well worth coming
just for the contrast: uncluttered by arches, it retains its
original medieval atmosphere, and – unlike the basilica
– a timbered roof. The cathedral houses an icon, too,
an eighth-century work known as the Madonna Odegitria, brought
here for safety from Constantinople by Byzantine monks. It's
said to be the most authentic likeness of the Madonna in existence,
having been taken from an original sketch by Luke the Apostle,
and it's paraded around the city at religious festivals.
Across the piazza the Castello Normanno-Svevo (Tues–Sat
9am–1pm & 3.30–7pm, Sun 9am–1pm; L4000/€2.06)
sits on the site of an earlier Roman fort. Built by Frederick
II, much of it is closed to the public, but it has a vaulted
hall that provides a cool escape from the afternoon sun. You
can also see a gathering of some of the best of past Puglian
artistry in a display of plaster-cast reproductions from churches
and buildings throughout the region – specifically from
the Castel del Monte, the cathedral at Altamura, and an animated
frieze of griffons devouring serpents from the church of San
Leonardo at Siponto.
Bari - A brief history
The historiographers called the province the name “Peucezia”,
after the Peuceti, a race that had strong links with the neighbouring
magnogreca salentina people. The urban culture of this people
can be seen alongside megalithic structures such as the Dolmens
(artificial caves built of stones and stone plates) and the
Menhir (standing stones). The Romans really brought a territorial
structure to the areas that ran parallel to the coastline,
which rises up towards Murgia. The most populous areas were
concentrated along the coast towards the East because of trade
with the other rich agricultural cities in the hinterlands.
The growth of the historical center is closely linked with
the development of the ecclesiastic buildings, which were
often the heart of these urban centers: Bari was a bipolar
city from the time of Greek-Byzantine domination, and contrasted
with the urban power signaled by the cittadella catapanale
(city of the Byzantine captain) home of the Basilica di S.Nicola.
In the late Middle Ages the Cattedrale di Bari dominated the
city, not only because of its size and the presence of the
“larghi” major piazzas (Piazza Odegitria, Piazza
S. Sabino, Piazza Bisanzio and Rainaldo) around it, but the
also because of the network of streets around, filled with
other sacred buildings, some of which, are now only recorded
in ancient documents. Continuing along the main road called
the “strada delle crociate” (street of the crusades),
which leads on in the direction of the Cathedral, you will
the encounter the Chiesa di S. Marco, spiritual home to a
flourishing colony of Venetian residents in Bari during the
Middle Ages and as you continue along you will reach the second
important part of the city, indicated by the cittadella nicolaiana.
The third “area” of the city is the “penisoletta”,
along the sea, with its large monastic complexes whose buildings
follow the curve of the island. The layout of the “cittadella
Conventuale”, is visible in the ancient buildings and
thought-provoking ruins, especially the Chiesa di S. Scolastica.
This complex leads to the most modern district of the historical
center, based on a 17th century design, where the network
of the straightest streets bear signs of the great changes
that took place. The new urban “feudalità”
created its residential palaces through a series of slow changes
in the way buildings were constructed and the materials that
were used, the “ruga Francigena” (now Via palazzo
di Città) and the Piazza Maggiore became some of the
most important “spaces” in the city. The development
of the network of streets in 1602, the construction of new
palaces, allowed the formation of a fourth urban area. The
gradual addition of new religious orders allowed by the Counter
Reformation and the modifications of pre-existing areas of
worship, produced a dominant building, characterized by impressive
baroque buildings of Chiesa di S. Chiara and with its beautiful
interior, such as those in Chiesa di S. Gaetano. Each era
has left its imprint on the city, which can be seen in the
buildings and monuments, memories of the past, which have
survived. The Byzantines left the deepest impression on the
city; they were in Bari at various times between the 7th and
12th centuries. Byzantium knew how to make the people feel
secure, due to its detailed organization of the State, administration
etc, it also facilitated economic and social growth as well
as maritime traffic, essential for the prosperity of Puglia,
keeping the trade between the East and West alive in all parts
of social, economic and religious life. The Byzantines were
supplanted in 1053 by the Normans under Roberto il Guiscardo.
Then came domination by the house of Svevi, who had an impact
not only in Bari but on the whole of Puglia, creating many
castles and cathedrals in a style defined as Romanesque-Apulian
(see Castello Svevo). The Angioini followed the Svevi, and
then came the bad government of the Spanish with the Aragonese,
this period was defined by a harsh increase in taxes and by
the spread of malaria. In 1707, the Aragonese were defeated
by the Austrians and Bari saw a period of recovery, characterized
by a flourishing commercial market through the sea and trade
over the water. Then came the Bourbons, and the city continued
to recover; during the 17th century links with Naples were
very strong, there are documents and manufactured goods “manufatti”
which record this period. In 1860, the city was unified with
the rest of the kingdom of Italy.
At the end of the 19th century the urban configuration changed
notably: at the same time as the industrial development and
the increase of the population, the urban center also developed
stretching far beyond what is today known as the center, exceeding
the limits signaled by the “extramurale” street
(the street that went beyond what were once the city walls)
Today the city is known as the “California of the South”
the capital of the region that is the most progressive in
comparison with to the other areas of the South, more active
and commercially competitive. It isn't as spread out as the
other metropolises that you may come across but it has everything
that other large cities can offer.
Translated
by T. McFarlane
