There's a Different World on the Bright Side of the Sun

The fast trains that speed thoughout Italy run underground for long distances. About 4 hours outside Florence, the train came up out of a tunnel & wow.... the sun was warm & reliable shining. The rolling fields were green. The air color changed from gray to yellow.

Bari, Italy has a bad reputation. I arrived after dark. The train station & its environs were filthy, littered, busy, rough, lots of beggars. I often have a snarly reaction to arriving in a new place, no doubt related to the fact that train & bus stations are generally located in the worst part of town. It took an hour to find what was supposed to be a 10-minute walk away. 

The up side of asking Italians for street directions:

> They are always happy to expound on the matter.

> They will look things up on google for you.

> They have very strong opinions about the route you should take.

> They will walk right out into the street & gesture in their described direction.

> They wave & wave & wave as you head down the street.

The down side of asking Italians for street directions:

> Because the national language is body language, their exhortations are accompanied by great waving of arms, so much so that you cannot actually tell what direction they are indicating. North, south, east, west -- it's all part of the scenario. 

My boxy little hotel room had nothing whatsoever hanging on the walls & smelled of stale cigarettes, but then again it had a comparatively large bathroom with a marble floor & bidet.

By daylight, things looked better.

                                                     Palm trees!

 Unemployment is high...you see groups of men everywhere, hanging out, playing cards or dice

           Lots of smoking going on

                                            Even the street art is bright

                The Old Town here is really old & no one has messed with it or dolled it up

             You go through turnnels

And a maze of narrow streets, getting lost instantly

     Clothes drying decorate balconies throughout

There is something so tender & appealing about a clothesline

             It means that life in full is lived here

                                 A woman's work is never done

This is a popular men's haircut -- shaved on the sides, Mohawk on top

 These curtains are the front doors of people's apartments

You can hear music, pots clanging, people talking, babies crying 

  Shops are small & specialized: fruits & vegetables

                        Butcher shop

                                              Pottery

      You wander out of the maze of Old Town & there's the seaside of Bari, a port town

 It's so astonishing to see a broad, blue, sunny sea -- I'm blinking & squinting, even with sunglasses on

 This fisherman is double-washing some kind of sea creatures -- octopus? squid? He peels a thin skin from one, rinses it thoroughly & hands it to me. Clearly I am meant to eat it. He & his friends are amused.

One cannot rudely decline, so I did! Salty, cold, wet, rubbery. Hard to swallow.

You don't have to take photos surreptitiously in Italy. People love to pose, as these teenagers did.