HK Independent Traveller Blog

  Bitonto is an elegant medieval town in the area of Bari with gorgeous monuments dotting the historical town and beautiful renaissance buildings of the 15th-16th century.   We started our day with a bit gloomy weather and headed to Bitonto . It is about 10 kilometres from Bari . Easy and best to take a train there, about 2 trains per hour. As most of the sightseeing points in Bitonto are opened in the morning and late evening, it’s best to be there around 9 a.m. The walk from the railway station to the historical centre takes about 10 minutes. The first amazing structure we saw was the imposing entrance door to the historic center, Porta Baresana . The emblematic gate was once connected to the walls defending Bitonto . It is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin. The doorway is formed by a round arch with rusticated pilasters on the sides. The modest gate together with the Torre Angioino and the Church of Gaetano offer a pleasant view.   At one time, twenty-...

  Bari is a very old city in Puglia , southern Italy. It is dated from the Bronze Age. The ownership was switched between sovereigns several times. Destructions and rebuild alternated throughout the centuries. This background shapes Bari into a highly multifaceted city with a rich history. The best place to visualize the history is Bari Vecchia (old town) and the nearby areas with elegant buildings. Besides history, Bari has one of the most beautiful promenades (Lungomare) overlooking the clear sea and surroundings.  Bari Vecchia is located north of Bari Central Railway Station. The area between the old town and travel hub is the city’s centre, full of activities and brand shops.  Along the walk stands several beautiful buildings. One great example is the Palazzo Mincuzzi . The Mincuzzi family , proprietors of the esteemed Mincuzzi department store, commissioned the construction of this architectural gem to serve as the new home for their business in the early 20 t...

  Alberobello wins wows from everyone when seeing photo(s) of numerous trulli , white houses characterized by a conical stone roof. The whitewashed walls of the trulli are built directly onto limestone bedrock and constructed using a dry-stone wall technique (i.e., without use of mortar or cement). The roof structure sits directly on the walls using simple squinches (corner arches) allowing the transition from the rectangular wall structure to the circular or oval sections of the roofs. The roofs of buildings often bear mythological or religious markings in white ash and terminate in a decorative pinnacle whose purpose is to ward off evil influences or bad luck. Thousands of trulli are like fairy tale setup and felt mythical. They are unique in this world.   In the old days in Italy, there was a tax on the rooftops. One had to pay this tax on the number of rooftops one had got. People from Alberobello had contrived a trick. They started to build their own houses with this...