PTM // Bari & Torre a Mare, Italy!

This morning I awoke to a really nice breakfast that Marina went out of her way to set up for me. She has been following my website over the past couple of months and feared that I would write a negative post about her breakfast because of some of the posts that I’ve written about the horrendous breakfasts that I’ve had here so far in Europe. Please understand that I don’t believe that all breakfasts are trash in Europe, I’ve had many great breakfasts actually! And breakfast with Marina was one of the best! She pretty much grabbed everything possible from her kitchen cabinets and placed it on the table for us to eat. It was great. There was cereal, fruit, biscuits, yogurt, and more! It was even better that we got to eat breakfast outside on her front porch with a view of the Adriatic Sea. The breeze was like no other and the sun was shining so bright. It was only 9:30AM. Paradise!

After breakfast I set out to get a closer look at the city of Bari. I took the #12 bus from just outside Marina’s house right down to the city center of Bari. From there I just explored the main shopping streets and even walked down to Old Town where I walked along the old castle walls of Bari. The views of the sea were really nice.

Unfortunately due to the time of day that I visited the city center of Bari most of the shops were closed. Most shops, restaurants, and other services close here from 1:30 to 5:30PM each day. It’s quite similar to a siesta in Spain really. After I explored the city a little bit I walked along the beach on my way back to the bus station.

Once I got back to Marina’s I took a siesta of my own. It was the first time that I’ve actually taken a nap during the day through out my whole trip so far! Put it this way, I’ve been very productive in Europe! I ended up napping for about two hours before waking up to my left over panzerotti from last night. Mmm! A panzerotti is flat bread folded in half stuffed with tomato sauce and mozzarella and can be baked or fried. I had Marina’s favorite type of Panzerotti which is the baked type. It was so GOOD! It’s like a pizza really, but Marina claims that “it’s not, it’s different”!

After dinner Marina was nice enough to take me to another coastal town south of her city called Torre a Mare which means Tower on the Sea. It’s a place where many people go on a nice warm night to hang out in it’s small square filled with restaurants, gelaterias, and more. It was a beautiful night, the town was illuminated and the lights were reflecting off of the water where many boats, and yachts were parked up for the night.

After visiting Torre a Mare, we headed back to Marina’s house and fell asleep quite early. We are planning on meeting two of Marina’s friends this morning one of which owns a beach house in Capitolo another coastal town south of Bari.