Via Francigena nel Sud Day 26: Bitonto - Bari

Road to from Rome Day 26: Bitonto - Bari

22 km

I had been told the stage between Bitonto and Bari was not very nice, so I was prepared for anything. But it was actually much more pleasant than expected! 

I left behind the outskirts of the town of Bitonto, following a country lane among the olive groves frequented by joggers and walkers out for their morning exercise. 

Nearing Bari, I caused an uproar by passing in front of the municipal kennels; from here I walked along the edge of a light industrial zone before turning off down a road through the trees, taking the long way around the infamous San Paolo suburb of Bari. This roundabout route took me to the airport road, which fortunately had a cycling lane... And where this ended, the sidewalk began. So I was able to walk in perfect safety and tranquility practically all the way into Bari. Only the last kilometre or so was on a small, winding road with no sidewalk - necessary to pass underneath the railway line. 

How amazing to arrive on the shore of the Adriatic Sea - fifteen days after leaving behind the Tyrrhenian coast at Scauri, on our last day in Lazio, between Formia and Minturno. My first coast-to-coast walk in Italy! 

I continued along the waterfront as far as the Lido di San Francesco beach, by the Fiera del Levante exhibition centre. Here I met my daughter Sara and her friend and colleague Nicole, who had been cycling and walking with the group that was one day ahead of me. Even though they travelled by bicycle for three days, I had managed to stay only 25 km behind them, one day's walk, and since they had a rest day today in Bari, I caught up with them - "with a little help from my friends" of the Comitato della Via Francigena del Sud - Corato, who gave me a lift for the last five to ten kilometres of a couple of double stages in the past few days that were just a little too long. 

We walked the rest of the way into Bari, checked into my hostel and went for a panzerotto at a well-known street food place, Mastro Ciccio,  then spent the rest of the day exploring Bari. 

The city's historic centre by the waterfront is home to the cathedral of San Sabino and the gigantic Basilica of San Nicola, built to house the tomb of one of the world's most popular saints. 

 

San Nicola di Bari, better known as St. Nick, Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, may well be the most widely known and most popular saint in the world. Saint Nicholas lived in Turkey in the years 270 - 343 and earned his present-day association with gift-giving through acts of particular generosity, particularly toward children and young people. In one of his earliest acts in his career as a secret gift-giver, Nicholas saved three young girls from being sold into a life of prostitution by their destitute father: for three nights in a row, as he passed by their house each night he threw a package containing gold coins in through the window, so that each of the girls would have a dowry sufficient to ensure a respectable marriage.

But the saint commonly known as "Nicholas of Bari" never actually lived in Bari. He was born into a Greek Christian family in the town of Myra, now Demre, Turkey, where he lived all his life and served as bishop. Less than 200 years after his death in 343, a church was built in his name on the site of the church where he was bishop, and his remains were transferred to it, where the saint rested in peace - until the year 1087. When the Byzantine Empire (temporarily) lost control of Asia Minor to the Turks in 1071, the city of Myra was practically deserted, and the Christians of Venice and Bari both wished to bring the saint's remains to Christendom. Bari got there first. A group of merchants on a trading mission to Antioch decided to stock up on crowbars and make a side trip to Myra. 47 armed men knocked at the door of the monastery of St. Nicholas and asked to be admitted "to pray at the shrine". Once inside, they turned on the monks, demanding to know where the body of St. Nicholas lay and claiming that the Pope himself had ordered them to bring it to Bari after being instructed to this effect by the saint himself in a dream. According to Nicephorus, the Italian-Greek author of an account of the episode, the monks protested: "Do you suppose that St. Nicholas will permit you to take him away?" When poor St. Nicholas offered no resistance, the monks cried out "with lamentable wails", realising this was their punishment for deserting the shrine when the Turks attacked the city some years earlier: "it is clear that we are unworthy of so great a saint!" "You have had the precious body of St. Nicholas for 775 years," responded the thieves; "St. Nicholas has now decided to bestow his favours on another place.... The city of Bari deserves him!" (source: Jonathan Sumption, The age of pilgrimage)

The defunct St. Nicholas made himself at home in Bari right away, performing a number of miracles as soon as he arrived in town.  Two years later, a new church was built to house his remains, placed into a tomb below the altar by Pope Urban II. In the west, May 9th is still celebrated as the day of the translation of St. Nicholas, which however continued to be regarded as a theft in the east. The Eastern Orthodox and western Catholic churches were reconciled in 1966, and in 2017 Bari even loaned a portion of the remains of St. Nicholas to be displayed temporarily in Moscow.