Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 22: Thursday, November 20, 2025 - Bari, Italy

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 15,635; Steve: 16,598

Our scheduled excursion was scheduled for noon.
While we tend/ed - on this trip - to stick to the excursions and not much more, we decided to make a slight change today because according to the map, there were some things to see that weren't too far away from where the ship was moored.
So we made plans to head out into the city to visit the Basilica San Nicola.
After breakfast, we prepped to head out.
On the other side of the port terminal were the shuttle buses. The map indicated that the drop-off point was actually probably further away than just walking from here.
We asked one of the guides, pointing in that direction, how far is it to get into the city. He asked another guide that said ten minutes or so. Great. And we headed out.
We were walking into a less and less developed area, though there was some construction going on nearby.
At the end of the walkway where we were, was a locked gate door. Hmm. It looks like we might be going in the wrong direction. I took out my mapping device and confirmed we should have been walking the other way. So we turned around and headed back toward the terminal. This time we just got on the shuttle bus and said "Let's just let them get us there."
After sitting for what seemed like fifteen minutes - but was probably closer to five - we changed our minds again, got off the bus and started walking. We were at the end of the long roadway when the bus that we would have been on passed by. We passed through the port secuirty gate, and waited at the crosswalk.
After crossing, we headed up a flight of stairs, around a corner, and came upon some ruins called Ruderi di Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio. Smack in the middle of the city.

We were trodding in a more quiet, off-the-beaten-path area, and we were glad we did. While there were no grandious sites to see, that was the point. This was the city. The quiet city (at least the quiet part of it). We saw residences. Pretty much just residences. In one spot, we passed through a "tunnel" and there was a Madonna on the wall (courtesy of the Rotary Club of Bari).
It was a rather lovely stroll.




Our path briefly took us to the top of the original city wall, with a view of bay and seaside.

After walking along the wall a little, we saw a sign pointing to the basilica, and our trek continued through the city.


As we arrived at the back corner of the basilica, a Viking tour group was approaching the same corner from the other direction.
We walked up the side of the basilica, and into the front.





Then we went inside.















After viewing the ceiling, organ, artwork, sculptures, and the like, we sat for a little.
While I am not fluent in Italian, I figured that this sign meant the saint's tomb was downstairs...

While Linda chose to remain in the pew to pray a little, I headed downstairs to see what was going on with regard to the tomb. There was a long line of worshipers that wanted to pay tribute to the saint's tomb.
I tried to be as descrete as possible while taking a couple photos of the tomb and room (which helps explain why a couple of the shots are not perfect).





I returned to the nave, and we headed out - taking a different route than the one to get to the basilica.
Another nice walk through a different part of the city.








We eventually arrived at the crosswalk - that had a small lighthouse, crossed the street, and headed back to the ship - passing a war memorial along the way too that we didn't notice the first time we walked past it a couple hours prior.




After passing through security, we embarked, and made our way to the cabin.

There was less than an hour before we would have had to get ready to go, so we just relaxed a little in the cabin.
At about 11:30, our lunches-to-go were delivered.
While we usually eat lunch buffet, the quantity of food we got was really unexpected: a full-sized turkey sandwich (turkey by choice, ham was the other option), TWO bananas, FOUR cookies (coincidentally, we got both chocolate chip and oatmeal raisen), and a granola bar. EACH.
We only took one sandwich and one set of eat type of cookie with us in the bag, as that seemed to be more than enough food. I slipped the two granola bars into the camaera bag in case they were needed.

The 12:00 excursion was called "Alberobello, the Trulli Village". Our guide was Davide ("dah-vee-day").
Our bus route took us through the city to the seaside roadway, passing a number of highlights that included Teatro Margherita (an old theater converted to an art gallery).













Our first stop was at an old farmhouse that was converted into a restaurant called Masseria Gelso Antico.






While the itinerary said "refreshments" - which I guess technically this was - it was more like a light lunch. As we had shared one of the sandwiches on the bus, we took advantage of the snack - mostly Focaccia breads, and some olives and feta - but didn't have to overdo it. And, of course, we had some wine.

We sat at a table of eight under one of the domed roofs, though the pictures may not reflect that so much.


After the snack, the group boarded the bus and coninued on.



We were getting closer.

The buildings with rounded tops are not really Trulli (plural of Trullo) houses. A Trullo houses has a specific design - including the way the pointy roof is constructed, three foot walls, and are constructed by specifically trained builders. On the way to Alberobello, we saw - and were told about - the difference in these houses and that we had not yet seen true Trulli houses.
The bus parked in a special lot on the side of town. And we had a little bit of a walk - across a couple main intersections and along a sidewalk - to get to the heart of Alberobello.
The best way to remember how to pronounce the name of the town, start with "Albert", then remove the "t" to get "Alber", then add "obello": "al-ber-o-bell-o".





Davide was conscience of a couple of the slower moving travelers we had in our group. After arriving in the "center square" (no, that isn't a reference to Hollywood Squares), he took a moment to go back to the beginning of the plaza to make sure they two slower couples were doing OK.
He then came back and began his history review, and we learned about the population and the town.
One of the highlights was around the Trulli houses. The story we were told is that the roofs were designed in such a fashion that the large center stone at the peak could be removed so if / when the tax man came calling, they could simply pull out the large center stone and say "What? There are no residences here." and not have to play taxes.






As we were walking on the pedestrian walkway, we passed a number of square tiles within the cobblestones. There were quite a few and I asked abouot them and was told they match the symbols on the Trulli houses - and they are relgious and astronomical characters. I had alread taken a number of pictures of them...





In one section, there was a group of Trullis that all had symbols on them.





We took a quick selfie too.

At the end of the street was Chiesa Parrocchiale di Sant'Antonio da Padova, or the Church of Saint Anthiny of Padua. This is where Davide told us about the rest of the excursion - we had to be at the plaza at the bottom of the slope at 4:00.
We decided to start our "free time" be going into the church.









We then made our way down the slope toward the plaza in search of tea towels, a postcard, and a shot glass.
We found all three, at reasonable prices, at the towns historical museum. After we made our purchase, we were about to leave when the proprietor made a motion and a said something like "panorama". Admittedly, we weren't sure exactly what he meant, but we took our purchase and headed toward the back of the store. We saw a sign that read "panaramic" with an arrow to the right. So we went. Climbed a small staircase, and found ourselves on the roof of the museum with a panaramic view of the town.



I took a short 300° pan from the museum rooftop too.

We continued on toward the plaza.


The group started gathering at the plaza, some spread out. We chatted with Davide before we started out.
Not everyone was present yet, but Davide said that we could start making our way to the bus - partially because some of the group moved a little slower than others.
Amanda was looking for her grandmother Carmen (who used a walker). We happened to have found her at the closer-to-the-bus end of the plaza. We waved our arms and flagged down Amanda and pointed to her grandmother to let her know we found her.
After boarding, we had a drive back to the ship - with a setting sun.




This was the first and last time we returned to the ship from an approach - and side of the bus - that permitted any semblance of a decent photo of it.

By the time we embarked, got to the room, and made it to The Restaurant, we were a little later than usual. So our usual table was given to someone else - it is first come, first served, after all. But we were adjacent at table 51.

Linda had Zuppa di Zucchine e Parmigiano, Charred Cauliflower Steak (not picture), and Torta alle Nocciole.


I had a double order of Tiger Prawns, King Prawn Risotto (not pictured), and Chocolate Soufflé.

Tonight was another night for trivia - at 8:00.
After enjoying a couple songs from the ladies in the atrium, we headed to the Lounge.
Our team gathered, and included Sandy and Steve, Kits and Mike, and Joyce and John (yes, we were supposed to only be a team of six..).
It was really difficult and obscure trivia, and we only got 6 out of 15 - so a slightly larger team didn't help.
The winning team only had 11.

After chatting with our teammates for a bit, we headed to the cabin for the evening.

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