20 years ago today - Day 206

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Wednesday, September 25th - Bari, Italy to San Vito - 12,080 km

The ship has already docked in the port of Bari on the heel of Italy when I wake. I pack my bags and take them to the deck to load them onto my bike, which has been chained to the gunwale railing all night. I find out too late that I should have removed my odometer. The salt air has shorted the computer and the screen is dead. For 205 days and over 12,000 km, I have recorded my distances each day. I am such a nerd that I like doing this and it has become a bit of a compulsion. It upsets me that I cannot do that now. I suppose the stress from my time in Croatia is making my upset much worse. Little disappointments are all it takes to tip the cart these days.

Bari is a fair-sized city of 300,000 or so, probably the most important city in south Italy other than Naples. I seek out the tourist information centre to get help finding a bicycle repair shop. The shop they guide me to is a slick one full of top-end racing bikes, but they are mostly focused on sales instead of service. They speak little English, but enough to figure out what I want. They have some very expensive models but not the one I have been using, so I would need to change the housing and calibration. I cannot read the Italian instructions and they will not install it for me so I abandon the idea of buying one here.

I buy a light breakfast at a coffee house, and eat while I talk with two American backpackers, Kevin and Keith, twins who are just returning to Italy to fly home this coming weekend. They get off on the fact that I am touring by bicycle and say they might try this next time. When we separate, I spend a little time seeing the sights in the core and along the waterfront before setting off south towards Brindisi.

The terrain in this part of Italy is mostly flat, especially along the sea. There is a coast road that runs all the way to Brindisi but the traffic is quite heavy, especially near Bari. The other problem is that drivers here honk aggressively because they do not want me sharing their road, even when I am on the other side. I interfere with their preference to speed well above the limit. They are frying what is left of my nerves.



After three hours, around 1 pm, I arrive in the historic and picturesque coastal town of Polignano, which perches on a rocky shelf above the shore. I take a break and eat lunch here. Then I head inland on small, much quieter roads south-west to the towns of Conversano and Putignano. Then I turn south-east and maintain that direction for the rest of the day. This region of Italy, especially the next town of



Alberobello, is famous for its trulli houses – cylindrical stones cottages with conical roofs, a larger variation of grain-storage huts sometimes seem in fields in parts of Europe. They are supposedly quite dark inside and are cool in summer but damp and chilly in winter.



I continue on until I reach the city of Osmuni built has a dramatic setting on a hill. I cycle part way into town and visit the crest of the hill to see the town. It


is getting late and the sun is already low. It is ten kilometres further to get to San Vito dei Normanni, where I take a room for the night in a small hotel. There are no youth hostels here but at least the hotel rooms are cheaper here than they were in the north of Italy. San Vito is full of trulli houses but fortunately the hotel I book is more comfortable.


I have dinner in the hotel, which has a small, unpretentious restaurant, and then I walk around the streets nearby until I am ready to retire for the night. I am still anxious and lonely when I stop cycling, when there isn’t anyone to talk to. I have a strong need to talk tonight, but the hotel has few other patrons and the streets are empty.

Tomorrow I will have only 20 km to reach Brindisi, where I will catch a ferry to the island of Corfu in northern Greece. I hope that the more distance I put between myself and Croatia, the better I will feel.


PHOTO 1: Bari waterfront just off the boat
PHOTO 2: Kevin and Keith
PHOTO 3: coastal city of Polignano
PHOTO 4: castle in Conversano
PHOTO 5: trulli houses and pear cactus, Alberobello
PHOTO 6: trulli roofs, Alberobello
PHOTO 7: Osmuni
PHOTO 8: the top of Osmuni
PHOTO 9: steep Osmuni lane
PHOTO 10: San Vito dei Normanni