After a rather bumpy sail, the Pacific Princess docked in the Italian port of Bari. Bari is a city of about 325,000 people and is also the capital of the Italian region of Puglia. It has a very busy industrial port.
We chose to take a tour of the highlights of Bari and a neighboring town of Trani. As it turned out the tour might have more accurately been entitled, “A War of Two Cathedrals”. We started out by driving to Trani which is about forty-five minutes from the port of Bari. When we got off the bus we walked right by the Norman Castle of Frederick II and on to the Basilica Cathedral of Trani which houses the relics (bones) of Saint Nickolas the Wanderer. We were given a tour of the Cathedral and the crypt which is said to hold the bones (relics) of the saint himself.
After the cathedral, we went an toured the Swabian Castle. This is one of the castles built by Frederick II.
We then returned to Bari where the tour took us to the Basilica of Saint Nicola. According to our guide there was a historic rivalry between the parishioners of Trani and Bari. So, when Trani secured the relics of Saint Nicholas the Wanderer for their Cathedral, the Bari Parishioners vowed to build an even bigger church and secure the relics of an even bigger saint. So, they sent a ship to Turkey to steal the bones of Saint Nicola. They succeeded and brought the bones back to Bari where they were installed in a crypt in the new Basilica. (In case you are wondering this Saint Nicola is in fact good old Saint Nick, Santa Claus!)
After viewing the Basilica and Saint NIck’s Crypt, the tour was over and the bus was headed back to the ship but we decided to wander around Bari’s old town by ourselves. So, we went back inside the city’s old wall and began wandering the narrow streets.
Soon we came to another church which Frances explored. Then we went looking for a place to eat lunch and found a nice little Italian ristorante across from the Castello Svevo.
From the grounds of the Castello, Frances spotted another church which turned out to be the Cathedral Parrocchia. Frances of course had to go and explore it …
