Bari

This beach is a great place to see a cross-section of Bari, and also get some sunbathing in. I don't recommend going in the water because it's fairly close to some sewer runoff holes, but the sand is nice, and there are showers to cool off with if you get too hot. Also if you prefer, there's a large lawn-like area where you can stay on the grass, instead of on the sand, so you don't have to worry about getting off the sand afterwards.

There's a great little coffee shop where you can get ice cream, coffee, and sandwiches, and just cool off in the shade.

This beach was created a few years ago in order to give the poorer Baresi a place to go during the summer; Bari is a seaside town, but it didn't have a "beach" with sand! Now you can find all kinds of people from Bari here...

It's great to go during the winter, too, as the coffeeshop is made entirely of glass so you can sit inside and look at the sea without having to feel the cold of the wind.

A key stop on any visit to Bari, the Basilica di San Nicola has a great story.

Bari believed that it needed a great saint in order to become a great city. Since during the middle ages stealing and killing in order to make your city more holy was not only accepted but encouraged, April 20, 1087, 62 sailors set out from Bari for Myra, Turkey. There these brave men stole the relics from the four pastors who guarded them. The bones were brought back to Bari, and the basilica was built to house them.

Inside, the Basilica is lovely and tranquil. There aren't too many grand paintings or statues, but it's cool and calm. You can also go down into the crypt to pray to the relics directly.

If you go around to the left side of the basilica, you can find some interesting bas reliefs which many people claim suggest that the Holy Grail is located in the church.

If you happen to be in Bari on December 5th or 6th, and go to the cathedral around 4 or 5 in the morning, you'll find hundreds of young women waiting to get inside. Legend says that if you walk three times around one of the columns in the crypt, you'll be married before the end of the new year. Most of the women who go these days go more or less as a kind of joke, but there are those who still believe in the tradition.

Bari also celebrates San Nicola on May 8, which is the day on which the bones arrived in the city. On this day, apart from the complete and utter non-existence of parking, you'll find a great deal of Slavs, especially Russians (whose patron saint is St. Nicholas), lights all over the city, a parade, and people out and about until the wee hours.

This celebration, held the Thursday before Easter, consists of going around to various churches throughout the older part of the city and saying a little prayer in each one. The idea is to reenact Mary Magdalene's search for Jesus' body. The tradition also holds that you must always visit an odd number of churches, never an even number. This means that most people visit three, but others will visit many, many more.

This night is also an opportunity to see the insides of many extremely old and beautiful churches that are never opened the rest of the year.

However, as with most things in Italy, this tradition has become more of an excuse to walk around with friends late at night and run into people that you might not otherwise see the rest of the year. In any case, the visits to the churches are still done, and the prayers always said—it's just that it's done in a positive and happy atmosphere, rather than one that might be more appropriate to a search for a dead loved one.