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In the spotlight after Pope Francis' visit, Bari is not only southern Italy’s most important commercial center after Naples: it is getting more press and tourists thanks to its incredible and thousand-year-old history, its culture, its art, and its way of living.

During the past few years Puglia has become one of Italy’s touristic hotspots thanks to its delicious food, wines, and olive oil, multi-culture history (Greek, Roman, and Swabian), folk traditions like the pizzica (a frenzied local dance), beautiful white sandy beaches, and the fact that it’s still off-the-beaten-track so the “real Italy” with friendly genuine people and affordable accommodations, the most typical of which are called masserie or farmhouses which welcome guests.

Magazines often call it “Italy’s Second Tuscany” but without the crowds.

Except for Lecce with its magnificent Baroque architecture and papier-mâché artifacts that you can watch being made, Puglia is better known for its scenery and lovely white-washed towns like Alberobello, Ostuni, Martina Franca, Locorotondo, and Gallipoli, than for its cities.  However, with Pope Francis’ visit on July 7 and six large cruise ships docking here each week Bari, Puglia’s capital city and southern Italy’s most important commercial center after Naples, is getting more press and tourists.

In brief, ancient Roman Barium was simply a commercial center, but became the regional capital under the Saracens in 847, and was subsequently the seat of the catapan, the Byzantine governor of southern Italy.  Under the Normans, to whom it fell in 1071, it became a significant maritime center rivaling Venice.

Here’s why and when you should go

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It is Bari’s most important touristic and pilgrimage sight.  As reported, it is located in Bari’s Old Town (Barivecchia) or medieval center, the location of several other sights. The Old Town is located on a peninsula stretching out into the Adriatic between the city’s two harbors. Home to 27 churches, it’s a labyrinth of narrow picturesque winding cobblestoned streets and small piazzas.  It counts two important piazzas. Through Piazza Ferrarese, named for Stefano Fabri or Fabbro, a merchant from Ferrara who settled in Bari during the 17th century is a good way to enter the Old Town. Lined with restaurants today, recent urban renewal uncovered a short stretch of the Via Traiana, an extension from Benevento to Brindisi of the Via Appia built by the Emperor Trajan in 109 AD. From here it’s a very short walk to the Piazza Mercantile, which houses the Palazzo Sedile (Palace of the Seat), once the city hall. On its facade is an enormous clock, which strikes not only the hours, but also the quarter-hours.  Nearby on a podium is the Column of Justice or of Shame with its ancient Roman lion.  Debtors, adulterers, thieves, and other criminals were stripped and made to sit ass-up on the lion and with their hands chained to the column.

Only a short walk from the Basilica of St. Nicholas is the late 12th century Duomo or Cathedral.  Its Romanesque architecture is based on St. Nicholas’ Basilica, but with a dome and one surviving tower (the other tower collapsed during an earthquake in 1613). The magnificent crypt with mosaic floors houses the icon of the Madonna Odegitria and the remains of St. Sabinus (461-566), a friend of St. Benedict whom he visited in Montecassino and Bari’s original patron saint.

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Puglia is renowned for its food and wine.  Typical dishes in Bari include orecchiette alle cime di rape e salsiccia (orecchiette with turnip tops and sausage), a casserole of rice baked with potatoes and mussels, burrata (a soft white cheese more gooey than mozzarella), and panzarotti (a savory turnover stuffed with tomato and mozzarella or mushrooms, or onions, anchovy, and caper fillings), and of course fresh seafood. Downtown Bari counts no Michelin starred restaurants, but five have been awarded Michelin plates: “La Bul”, “Ai 2 Ghiottoni”, “Osteria delle Travi’Il Buco’”, “Biancofiore”, and “La Pignata” with two others on the city’s outskirts “La Taberna” and “Da Nicola”.  I also recommend “Terranima”, “La Battigia” and most of all “Al Pescatore” for its sea urchin dishes and seafood antipasto. For unbeatable local snacks head straight for reasonably-priced, informal Tiella.

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Probably built in 1132 by the Norman King Roger II, it was destroyed in 1156 by King William of Sicily and rebuilt and reinforced by the Holy Roman emperor Fredrick II with a moat on three sides and the sea on the fourth.  Isabella II of Aragon and her daughter Bona Sforza both lived here during the 16th century.  Today the Castle is used for temporary art exhibitions.

Wikipedia recounts: “According to tradition, in 1221 Emperor Frederick II met St. Francis of Assisi in this castle.  Supposedly the Emperor had a courtesan sent to Francis’ room and watched through the peephole to see what would happen.  When Francis sent the woman away, Frederick was impressed with his principles; the two spent the rest of the night in conversation.”

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The most notable alteration that occurred in the Basilica in the 16th century was the insertion of the mausoleum of Bona Sforza (1494-1557) into the central apse of the upper church. Born in Vigevano in 1494, and educated in the castle of Bari, Bona became Queen of Poland in 1517, wife of King Sigismund I the Elder.

Polish historians close to the nobility spread the so-called Black Legend, according to which Bona was a greedy and unscrupulous woman. In reality, Bona was a woman who seemed born to reign, giving Poland the golden age that preceded the era of her son Sigismund II Augustus.

She imprinted on Polish social life fundamental turning points in the fields of law, religious freedom and agrarian reform, especially in her fiefdoms in western

Russia. Suspected of having her daughter-in-law poisoned, she was expelled from power by her son (1548). She returned to Bari in 1556, going to live in the castle, where she died in 1557. She was buried in the Cathedral, but later in 1589 Queen Anne, her daughter, was able to obtain the transfer from the pontiff to S. Nicola.

The mausoleum was built in Naples and then moved to Bari.

Bona, in old age, is portrayed praying on her knees. The two bishops are St. Nicholas, patron saint of Bari, and St. Stanislaus, patron saint of Poland. The two female allegories hold the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland (left) and the Duchy of Bari (right).

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Bari’s underground tour touches on over 1,200 years of history for what remains of Roman Barium today is underground.  All of Bari’s medieval buildings in the Old Town were built on top of Roman and then of Byzantine buildings incorporating ancient Roman building materials. From under the Castle, which was built on remains of a Byzantine houses built on the remains of a Roman fort, the walk continues to under the crypt of San Sabino, which houses a pagan altar; a magnificent mosaic floor with an inscription thanking its benefactor, once in the entrance of a 5th century Christian church; and Byzantine wells. The walk ends below 16th-century Palazzo Simi where there are the remains of a Byzantine church’s apse and a medieval fireplace.

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Passing through Bari’s streets  you can sample local pizza, olives, cheese, prosciutto, wine, pasta, and homemade gelato. Families in Barivecchia are used to prepare homemade orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta), probably Puglia’s most famous dish, in several different sauces, tomato and peperoncino, with turnip tops and sausage, and with mussels.