Bari

Bari faces the Adriatic, and its old town is a white maze where women still make orecchiette by hand, on trestle tables in front of their doors. The Basilica of Saint Nicholas holds the saint's relics, carried off from the East by Bari sailors in 1087 — Father Christmas begins here. The Swabian Castle of Bari, square and heavy, remembers Frederick II, and his octagonal Castel del Monte still crowns a hill inland. Puglia unfolds around the city: the cone-roofed Trulli of Alberobello, Trani Cathedral standing with its feet in the water, the cliff-walled inlet of Lama Monachile at Polignano a Mare. Underground, the Castellana Caves drop seventy metres into a run of white caverns. Food is tomato focaccia, orecchiette with turnip tops, and raw fish eaten by the old harbour.