We were up much earlier this morning to put the final packing in our suitcases then down for our last breakfast at this amazing, Baglioni Hotel Regina, checked out and then grabbed a taxi to the Termini Station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 10:02 am, we arrived at the station at about 9:40, so plenty of time - well you would think. We looked up at the big board and all the train arrival / departure platform assignments where posted except ours, hmmm. 9:50 am and finally where we needed to go shows up on the board, number 9. Okay, we go into the next area, which is new to us here because usually you could just go to your platform, well not now, you need to go through a turnstile system with scanning your ticket, a bit of a line but not too bad. Well we put our scan code onto the screen and nothing happens, hmmm, this is not good 9:55 am. Panic begins to set in and we are trying to get this thing to work… An attendant comes over and grabs Jan ticket, looks at it and places it onto the screen and holds it there for about 5 seconds, boom, good to go. Panicking never works, got to be a bit patient, I hold mine there and in I go, 9:59 am, I see the train coming in. We are in car number 3 which means getting ourselves way down the platform, toward the front. We get there just as the doors open. In we go, find our assigned seats and within minutes off we go… The train ride was very pleasant, these fast trains are a wonderful way to get around, at one point I noticed we got up to 297 klm/hr, pretty good as we watched the countryside go by. The train made about a half dozen stops along the way before pulling into Bari about 4 and half hours later. Using my city maps 2 go app on my phone, I found that our hotel was about an 18 minute walk away, with the nice weather it was a good way to stretch the legs, so we decided to walk.
We checked into out Palace Hotel here in Bari, all good, got ourselves a bit organized and took a quick walk into the main area just to scout out this city. We happened into the old part of the city as well as looped around to the newer area. What an amazing contrast and such a beautiful city, it looks like they are familiar with tourists. This city runs ferries across to Croatia (Dubrovnik) as well as over to Albania, I noticed it is also a port stop for the MSC Cruise line. We had a great dinner at a place just a few steps form the hotel, a great spot located in a building that must date back to Middle Ages - incredible stone work. A great meal with great service. We look forward to exploring this city tomorrow, crossing our fingers for the weather to remain nice, off and on sun today with temperatures in the early 20’s, very nice and comfortable. Only a few pics for today, hope you enjoy…Hotel wifi not the best, thus post will be delayed…
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