Grotte di Castellana & Polignano, Italy!

Grotte di Castellana

This morning I woke up early and headed down to Bari Central Station so that I could catch the train to Grotte di Castellana. I had planned on trying to make the 11:00AM (long tour) in English of course, but when I arrived at the train station I realized that the next train wasn’t departing until 10:53AM. Guess I’m not making the 11:00AM, huh? Luckily there was another time slot available so I went with Plan B which was to take the 1:00PM (short tour).

I arrived at Grotte di Castellana around noon time and as I walked off of the train I felt like I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere. I decided to try to walk through what I thought looked like a desolate car park and after asking a random man who passed me where the Grotte di Castellana was. His English wasn’t good but he ended up pointing me in the right direction.

Once I arrived at the Grotte I purchased my ticket for the 1:00PM tour of the caves and pretty much laid out on a bench in the sun for a little less than an hour awaiting to be called.

Photography is Prohibited

Once the clock struck 1:00, we were met by our guide Christina who walked us down into the first cave and informed us that we were only allowed to take photos and videos in this part of the cave. Photos and videos were prohibited through out the rest of the tour. Don’t ask! Who knows why!?

I was pretty disappointed about the whole no camera rule because I love to show my website viewers the in’s and out’s of everywhere that I visit on this trip. Unfortunately this time I couldn’t even sneak any photos or videos because they had a guide at the front speaking about the caves, and then another guide followed along and joined us at the back of the group.

I did get the chance to capture a few nice photos of the first cave though. Here’s another good shot below.

After the 45 minute walk through the caves we arrived back at the end and took an elevator back up to the exit and that was it.

Conclusion

Overall I would say the trip to the caves was worth it’s 10 Euro admission price. It’s definitely a really cool thing to see if you’re in the Puglia region, or anywhere near Bari, Italy. It’s only an hour train ride away from Bari, and I’d recommend you take the Long Tour instead of the Short tour I took (if possible). Supposedly the long tour takes you to a cave called the White Cave which is supposed to be amazing. Unfortunately for me the train times screwed me up. Maybe next time!

On to Polignano

After dinner Marina took me to a city which is south of Bari called Polignano. She had been wanting to take me there for a few days now, but each night we were either busy doing something else, or too tired to make the trek. Tonight we made it down to Polignano and I was so happy that we did.

Once we arrived in Polignano it was sort of an issue to try to find parking but after a few minutes we ended up getting a really nice spot right near the entrance of the feast that was going on! I had never been to an Italian feast before, but I had heard of them in the past. They are basically just big celebrations in the streets full of people, lights, food, street vendors, alcohol and entertainment. Sweet!

As we walked down the main street into Polignano, the edges of the road were crammed with street vendors that were selling the same old stuff, (fake purses, sunglasses, toys, wallets, wrist watches, and more). It’s pretty interesting to see, but at the same time after you walk a mile and see the same stuff being sold over and over it gets sort of boring. We split off down another road that led us to the Old Town of Polignano and I was amazed to see how clean the old town actually was. It was built with all white stone and it was just absolutely beautiful!

Tonight is the last night that I’ll spend at Marina’s comfortable home in Bari. I’m excited to go to Croatia, yet sad that I have to leave already. I’ve spent four great  nights here in Bari and I hope to be back to visit again soon. I have to say that the Puglia region of Italy is one of my favorite parts of Italy so far. It’s so beautiful here, and the views of the sea on the coasts of some of many cities that lie along the Adriatic are simply unbelievable. Bari, and the Puglia region is somewhere that I would love to come back to.

Thank you Marina!