What You Need To Know

Bari is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas.
Bari is made up of four different urban sections. To the north is the closely built old town on the peninsula between two modern harbours, with the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, the Cathedral of San Sabino (1035–1171) and the Hohenstaufen Castle built for Frederick II, which is now also a major nightlife district. To the south is the Murat quarter (erected by Joachim Murat), the modern heart of the city, which is laid out on a rectangular grid-plan with a promenade on the sea and the major shopping district.
Modern residential zones surrounding the centre of Bari were built during the 1960s and 1970s replacing the old suburbs that had developed along roads splaying outwards from gates in the city walls. In addition, the outer suburbs developed rapidly during the 1990s. The city has a redeveloped airport named after Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła Airport, with connections to several European cities.

Bari is a port city on the Adriatic Sea, and the capital of southern Italy’s Puglia region. Its mazelike old town, Barivecchia, occupies a headland between 2 harbors. Surrounded by narrow streets, the 11th-century Basilica di San Nicola, a key pilgrimage site, holds some of St. Nicholas’ remains. To the south, the Murat quarter has stately 19th-century architecture, a promenade and pedestrianized shopping areas.

Population: 325,056(2014)
Area: 44.79 mi²

Currency

The euro is the official currency of Italy, which is a member of the European Union. The Euro Area refers to a currency union among the European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official currency. The Euro is divided into 100 cents (centimes, centesimi), with two decimals after the comma (not decimal point, comma). So, a price will often be displayed as €10,00 (ten euros); or €2,14 (two euro and 14 cents), etc.

Climate

The climate is warm and temperate in Bari. The winter months are much rainier than the summer months in Bari. This climate is considered to be Csa according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature in Bari is 16.1 °C. Precipitation here averages 567 mm. The driest month is July, with 22 mm of rainfall. Most of the precipitation here falls in November, averaging 69 mm. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of 24.1 °C. January is the coldest month, with temperatures averaging 8.8 °C. The difference in precipitation between the driest month and the wettest month is 47 mm. Throughout the year, temperatures vary by 15.3 °C.

Languages

The dialect of Bari belongs to the linguistic family of upper-southern Italo-Romance varieties, and currently coexist with Italian, although these are used in different contexts. Unlike it is often thought, Barese is to be considered a sister language of Italian, rather than a daughter language of it, on a par with any other Romance varieties.

Safety

Bari Vecchia is a beautiful neighbourhood but because of the narrow, crowded streets and the presence of tourists, it is the preferred place for local pickpocketers.

Transport

Bari has its own airport, Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport, which is located 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest of the centre of Bari. It is connected to the centre by train services from Bari Aeroporto railway station.
Bari Central Station is connected to cities such as Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin and Venice. Regional services also operate to Foggia, Barletta, Brindisi, Lecce, Taranto and other towns and villages in the Apulia region.

Cuisine

Bari’s cuisine, one of Italy’s most traditional and noteworthy, is based on three typical agricultural products found within the surrounding region of Apulia, namely wheat, olive oil and wine. The local cuisine is also enriched by the wide variety of fruit and vegetables produced locally. Local flour is used in homemade bread and pasta production including, most notably, the famous orecchiette ear-shaped pasta, recchietelle or strascinate, chiancarelle (orecchiette of different sizes) and cavatelli. Homemade dough is also used for baked calzoni stuffed with onions, anchovies, capers and olives; fried panzerotti with mozzarella, simple focaccia alla barese with tomatoes, little savoury taralli, friselle and sgagliozze, fried slices of polenta all make up the Bari culinary reportoire.
Olive oil and garlic are widely in use. Vegetable minestrone, chick peas, broad beans, chickory, celery and fennel are also often served as first courses or side dishes.
Pasta al forno, a baked pasta dish, is very popular in Bari and was historically a Sunday dish, or a dish used at the start of Lent when all the rich ingredients such as eggs and pork had to be used for religious reasons. The recipe commonly consists of penne or similar tubular pasta shapes, a tomato sauce, small beef and pork meatballs and halved hard boiled eggs; but different families have variations. The pasta is then topped with mozzarella or similar cheese and then baked in the oven to make the dish have its trademark crispy texture.