Bari - Easter Monday in Polignano a Mare and Trani

Easter Monday is a National Holiday in Italy and Italians traditionally make a family excursion for site seeing, or a picnic, or both. We decided to join them and visit two seaside towns, first south to Polignano a Mare with its sea views and then north to Trani with its amazing cathedral.

Italian singer Domenico Modugno, with the hit song "Volare", is from Polignano and visiting his statue is a mandatory stop on the Polignano walking tour.


And by chance there is a procession entering the Cathedral just as we walk by.






The Cathedral altar is looking splendid.


But the real attraction of Polignano a Mare are the sea views.




A lone kayaker.




Folks were having a fine time taking photos at any scenic spot.


And the train station at Polignano where we head north to Trani.


These bicyclists are first off the train at Trani.


While Polignano a Mare is set on cliffs with great views to the sea, Trani is set around a harbor. The walk in from the train station to the Old Town was pleasant.




The Cathedral of Trani, dedicated to St Nicholas, has three levels, a double columned nave, and is set by the sea. Wow!












The crypt of St Nicholas, under the main church, and which is visited by pilgrims from all over the world, especially by Orthodox Christians.


An old synagogue.


Back streets.


The harbor.


Exuberant Italians.


The Public Garden.

Bari - Easter Sunday in Ruvo di Puglia

The day before Easter we took the regional FSE train from Martina Franca to Bari, the 2nd largest city in southern Italy (after Naples) with about 1,000,000 people in its metropolitan area. Bari is also one of the great seaports on the Adriatic. Not on our itinerary when we left Raleigh, we very much enjoyed our stay in Bari with an Easter Sunday excursion to Ruvo di Puglia and Easter Monday excursions to Polignano a Mare and Trani.

This post covers our Easter Sunday in Ruvo di Puglia.

On Sundays the Bari Metro trains do not go all the way to Ruvo so we had to switch to a Metro bus in Bitonto. The train coach in was brand new; had that new coach car smell.


The Ruvo di Puglia Easter Sunday procession gets started at 9:30 and does a quick, 1.5 hour circuit around town, stopping at the Town Hall, and ending at St Domenico's. On the way, 3 quarantana (dolls that look like witches) that have been strung up on a wire all Lent, are blown to bits. Let's get right to the action with the destruction of the first quarantana.




And here's the link for folks who get the email version.

Priests, lay people, civic leaders and employees, all participate in the procession.


The wide streets and sidewalks of Ruvo are prefect for a procession.


The second quarantana, before, during, and after.








There was a good crowd in the piazza in front of the Town Hall to watch Quarantana #2 get blown to bits.


A town offical gave a long speech.




The quarantana gets blown up only after the procession goes by.


Then we all walked down to St Domenico's, where after an hour long outdoor church service, and balloon launch, the 3rd quarantana bit the dust.

Martina Franca

Sun-Ling and I have a travel M.O.; one aspect is that we rarely make hotel reservations, preferring to check out the room and negotiate a rate in person. As Sun-Ling puts it, "We don't book, we look." However, with the busy Easter holiday approaching we decided to book three nights in advance in Martina Franca. These days, online booking and rating sites like TripAdvisor.com and Booking.com make it easy to reserve a room with a few clicks; but you still never know exactly what you'll get.

We hit the jackpot in Martina Franca with a good location and fantastic hosts at CiaoBello B&B, Via Francesco Paolotti, 31, 74015 Martina Franca TA. In addition we found Martina itself to be more than just a good transport hub; a lovely town with sites, eats, and vibe to our liking.

We set out on the FSE, a regional line, train from Lecce to Martina Franca.


Even though the sun did NOT come out for two days, and it was cool and breezy at 440 meters, we found the Old Town of MF a pleasant place to wander.




Martina's Easter Witch. Stay tuned.




Former Hospital.


Back streets inside the Old Town.


A couple of towers remain from the old City Wall.




Foodys, our fav eating spot in town and just 100 meters from CiaoBello. We could not get enough panzerotti, more or less a deep-fried calzone stuff with mozzarella and tomato.




Since our B&B was only a few hundred meters from city center, we went strolling with the locals every night.


Thursday before Easter there was a small procession for the XIV Stations of the Cross.




And on Good Friday evening there was a very solemn procession. Seems that the whole town was either in the procession or lining the streets. This year marked the 300 anniversary of Martina Franca's Good Friday procession.