Off to Bari. Polley and I took the train two hours north to the town of Bari, which sits right on the sea, north of Brindisi, which some of you may have heard of, since ferries for Greece leave from there.
However, before talking of the trip, let us inform you that rain still continues here. Boy, does it. A thunderstorm rolled through early Tuesday morning. There was lots of lightning and resounding booms above. Also, let me remind you of our shower. It has a fiberglass skylight. When rain hits it the sound combined with the natural echo of an all tile shower creates a deafening roar. For more than an hour, the sky opened up and we had an audio replica of Niagara in our bedroom. It was amazing. So a “good night’s sleep” was not in the cards.
We got ready for the 10:13 train for Bari. We watched the weather carefully as it was still raining off and on and we had a 20-minute walk to the train station (and, at this point are travelling without a umbrella). We caught a break about 9:15 and dashed across town, still dry upon arrival and got the right train. I will say that compared to French trains, Italian trains are relatively inexpensive. Our two hour train rides in France last year wee about 75 euro (with the bad exchange rate even worse) and our trip to Bari was more than half that (not counting a much improved exchange rate!). Anyway, just about noon we were in Bari.
We were there to visit our neighbor Andy’s parents. The have been living in Bari for the last 8 years. They are Mennonite missionaries and actually, Andy’s day, Willard, is regional director for the missions to Italy, Albania, Montenegro and other surrounding areas in the region. We found them waiting for us by the fountain at the train station.
From there, they drove us around Bari a bit. We went into the old part of the city and stopped briefly at this wonderful old castle (castello) that is beautifully preserved with the evidence of the moat still surrounding it.
Willard and Eva are the names of Andy’s parents. Willard stopped an Italian fellow and got him to take this photo with the castle in the background.
From there, they whisked us off to a local trattoria where you eat family style and take what they are offering that day. It was local and while we got there early and the photo shows an empty restaurant, the place was full within 30 minutes of our arrival. And the menu was quite an offering!
It was a fixed price menu and you got it all whether you wanted it or not! After the antipasti, some bits of ham, mozzarella, wonderfully sautéd peppers and cherry tomatoes and a toast bread with a cherry tomato in the middle. There were a couple of choices for Primi. Polley and I each selected one and they were nice enough to divide them for us, so we got tastes of each. Mine was an excellent kind of risotto with rice, potato, peas, onion and mussels. Polley had a purée of dried fave beans with some cooked greens on top. For secondi, I had horse meat (very much a regional staple)! It was shredded and tied up into small rolls and cooked in a tomato sauce. Polley had calamari that was cut almost like French fries. Both very good. Horse meat is somewhat stringy and very chewy with a strong flavor. Horses will be glad to know that I won’t need to be having it everyday, but I enjoyed the dish. We finished up with a sweet cookie and some limoncello.
After lunch, having found a good parking spot, we strolled around the old city, along the bay. The weather turned lovely and it was truly a delight to be outside.
From there we returned to the Willard’s apartment as Eva had promised us coffee and dessert. So, we sat in their lovely sixth floor apartment and enjoyed homemade cannoli that are Sicilian in origin. They are cylindrical pastry rolls filled with ricotta, dried fruit and rum flavoring. Delicious.
We spent another hour talking about their experiences as missionaries and about Andy as a boy. It was terrific to be able to connect them to our neighbor.
All in all, it was a wonderful 5 hours with family of friends.
Around 5, they took us back to the train station for our slow train to Lecce. During lunch, Willard had talked about the Italians capacity to talk. We no sooner got on the train and four Italian 20-year olds, guys) sat down right next to us, despite there being plenty of room on the train car, and they talked, non stop(!) all the way to Lecce. There was barely time for a breath!
Back in town about 8. Again, we were fortunate to walk in between the showers and made it back to the apartment still dry. We had intended to go out for a glass of wine later, but found ourselves done in by the day of travel. We had our own wine and a light snack and called in a day -- a very good day, but it was time to turn out the light.
Ed and Polley
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