I got back from my morning side trip to Polignano a Mare in time to do some stuff in Bari. I just didn’t know what. My guidebook didn’t offer many more suggestions as to what to do here. There were a couple of guidebook-recommended sights I hadn’t seen, Museo del Succorpo della Cattedrale and the […] The post Teatro Margherita, Bari appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

Bari is interesting and, in parts, quite picturesque. So it’s worthy of a visit on its own, but it’s also a great place from which to take side trips. For example, this morning I took a train to Polignano a Mare. Mare is Italian for sea. If you knew that then, even if weren’t familiar […] The post Polignano A Mare appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

After I got back from my morning’s side trip to Trani, I had a late lunch in Bari. It seriously disrupts the order of the universe to discuss my lunch at the start of an afternoon entry rather than the usual end of a morning post. But here we are. I’ll brush over it exceptionally […] The post Bari Cathedral appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

Another day, another side trip out of Bari. This morning I took a train to Trani. I chose that destination solely so I could type “train to Trani.” I’m kidding, of course. My guidebooks recommend a couple of sights there and it sounds like an interesting seaside town. Furthermore, Trani is close to Bari—30 to […] The post Trani appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

I teased you in this morning’s post by saying that because of my late return from Alberobello I wouldn’t have time to see a lot of things, but not none. I didn’t lie. But it didn’t go quite according to the plan I devised on the bus back from Alberobello. To be honest, it wasn’t […] The post Castello Svevo appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

I arrived in Bari yesterday afternoon and today I left town and headed to Alberobello, just over an hour bus ride away. Arriving in Bari and almost immediately leaving is not meant to be a negative reflection on the city. From my wandering yesterday it seems to have at least a few nice bits to […] The post Alberobello appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

Due to a late lunch, I didn’t have a lot of time in this afternoon today. I spent it visiting three sights in what my guidebook refers to as Matera’s new town. I have trouble calling it new other than in the context of Matera’s older town, its saasi, which I focused on this morning. […] The post Matera’s New Town appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

By rights, the title of this post should be either “The Sassi of Matera” or “Matera’s Sassi,” not “Sassi Matera.” Google Translate tells me that the Italian word “sassi” translates into “stones” in English. The singular is sasso. The sassi of Matera are rock districts where its old town’s cave dwellings and churches (and now […] The post Sassi Matera appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

If you’ve been following along, you might remember from my post about my expedition from Salerno to Lecce that I said I had another hellish travel day coming up. Today’s the day. I traveled from Lecce to Matera. You might also recall that my official definition of a hellish travel day is one that involves […] The post Lecce to Matera appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more

This is my last day in Lecce. I spent this afternoon the way I started my time here. I went for a wander in Lecce. Or, to be more specific, Lecce’s centro storico (old town). There is a lot to be said for tourism by wandering around. Guidebooks are great for making sure you don’t […] The post Last Wander in Lecce appeared first on Joel's Journeys & Jaunts ..read more