EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

There's not a lot to the new city of Bari, bar a good museum or two. Its straight streets are lined with shops and offices, relieved occasionally by the odd piazza and bit of greenery, best of which is the starting-point of the evening passeggiata, Piazza Umberto I - usually full of stalls selling jewellery, books and prints. Off the piazza, the university building houses an excellent Museo Archeologico , which is unfortunately closed for restoration at present. If it's re-opened by the time of your visit, it's well worth a look for anyone interested in the region's history: it holds a good selection of Greek and Puglian ceramics and a solid collection of artefacts from the Daunic, Messapian and Peucetic peoples - Puglia's earliest inhabitants. Afterwards, cut to the right for tree-lined Corso Cavour , Bari's main commercial street, which leads down to the waterfront. Right along here, in the Palazzo della Provincia, the Pinacoteca Provinciale (Tues-Sat 9am-1pm & 4-7pm, Sun 9am-1pm; L5000/¬2.58) is a local art collection of mainly southern Italian stuff, twelfth- to nineteenth-century, with strong work by the fifteenth-century Vivarini family.