Bisceglie is an Italian port city on the Adriatic Sea. It is located in the Apulia region and belongs to the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. Bisceglie is practically unknown to the general public, so it is worth coming there and taking a break from the crowds.
By visiting this unknown region northwest of Bari, you can experience real Italian life ⛱︎
Bisceglie is about 42 kilometers northwest of Bari. The Trenitalia railroad runs along the coast, and you can get there from Bari without any problems. Connections are sometimes several times an hour, the ride takes 23-35 minutes and costs €3.
How to get there?
We started by buying fly tickets: Wroclaw-Bari, Bari-Wroclaw. We wanted to do this trip on a fairly budget, and looking for accommodations in Bari for a week, by “normal standards” we would have to pay a minimum of 3 thousand for 7 nights (we bought the tickets a week before the departure date). It fell on the village of Biscieglie. For a 50m2 in super standard, with hulking Internet (we had to have Internet for work), we paid €420.
What was the way from the airport to Bisceglie like? First we had to take bus line 16 (leaves directly from the airport, cost €1 – you can pay by card) to the Maccachie stop, then in a few minutes we walked to the Bari Palese stop. There are ticket machines at the station, you can pay both by card and cash.
This route took us about 1h. The trains run like crazy there, and it’s important not to walk across the tracks to the other side, as they are rushing 200km/h and you never know when they will come. Safe crossings are down the stairs!
Trains have toilets, air conditioning. Just remember to buy tickets and punch them before boarding the train. In the machines you buy them for a given time, for example, 12:35, and if it’s too late – 3 minutes to departure (the machine prevents such a purchase), then you choose the connection that appears next, right after ours. You can also get tickets on the train, but with a €10 penalty per person. Ahh! – and the fine for not having a valid ticket is 200€.
I would mention a few more words about Trenitalia. Any schedule change is not visible in google maps, and on the website everything is always updated.
As for trains, I know that there is also a recommended application TIME TIMETABLE ITALY, but we did not use it.
The routes that Trenitalia provides are:
- Bari-Foggia western route: among others, Trani, Molfetta, Barletta
- Bari-Lecce eastern route: among others, Polignano a Mare, Monopoli, Ostuni, Lecce
- Bari-Taranto southern route: among others, Taranto
I recommend you check the schedule on Trenitalia’s website every time, especially if you are planning a route to the airport. In our case on the last day, Sunday, it turned out that the railroads were on strike and nothing was running that day. Miraculously, we found a bus from a private company that arrived 15 minutes early at the bus stop (although it’s hard to call it a bus stop, it was by the sidewalk, the bus stop sign was at the pedestrian crossing, we ourselves weren’t quite sure if it was the right address), and I put out my hand at the last minute to catch it and ask if it was going to the airport.
But going back, train tickets can be bought at ticket counters, at vending machines at the station or online. Tickets bought at the ticket office or vending machine are necessarily punched BEFORE boarding the train. We didn’t use the app, but as far as I know, there, too, you need to activate your ticket moments before boarding the train.
(As for the ticket offices at the train station, they do not operate all day in smaller towns. They often have a break during the day or work there only on weekends).
We were so comfortable in Biscegile that we didn’t even want to go anywhere else. We had everything on site, beaches, good food, stores, gelato. And the only tourists we saw were Italians who came there from other areas of the country.
As I mentioned before, Bisceglie turned out to be a hit in 10! An old port town with stone streets, where all the locals know each other, and at the sight of tourists are surprised and ask for what purpose we came here.
In the evening on the first day we went for a walk, want to get to know the atmosphere of the city. Walking towards the port, to our surprise, we suddenly saw a lot of pubs and bars. These are places to sit, listen to music, eat well and have a drink.
Food
Have you ever heard the phrase that if you go to Italy, you will be disappointed with their pizza? Well, I do. Fortunately, everyone was wrong, something wonderful! The owner of our apartment recommended us a pizzeria, right next to our place. The place opens daily from 6pm, and is called Pizzeria Lievito 48 (P.za Vittorio Emanuele, 69, 76011 Bisceglie BT, Italy). The gentleman-owner (I think it was the owner), even though he couldn’t speak much English, tried to explain everything to us, each type of dish, what it comes with, what it looks like, well the golden gentleman. In Google maps you can check the menu of this place. Pizza prices start as low as €5.
Our first brilliant was – Francesine Rosse. Francesine is a type of pizza from the Puglia region. The difference between this and regular pizza is the type of dough – in fancesine, potatoes are added to it, making it crispier, and the pizza corners are the best out there!
Traditional Francesine is tomato sauce and mozzarella. Of course, there is an array of other toppings served with it. It cost us €10, and one can be eaten by two people.
On another day, the combination of mortadella, stracciatella and pistachios was not to be missed. Mm.. delicious! Perfect dough, balanced amount of cheese…. a miracle
A place we also have to recommend is: Agorà Urban Food. (P.za Vittorio Emanuele, 76011 Bisceglie BT, Italy).
There you will find all sorts of panzerotti. Panzerotti are Italian dumplings made from pizza dough. In the classic version, they serve them with mozzarella and tomatoes.
At Agorà Urban Food they have a huge selection of ingredients, and they also serve a paprika pie. I guess this place can never get bored, because you can constantly try different versions. The best part is that they serve this dumpling in such a way that it’s delicious on sight alone (in the classic version it’s such a big dumpling, uncut). In our case, it fell on mortadella and straciatelle (€5). And for the version with tomato sauce or mozzarella you will pay from 2€. Served hot, of course!
And for dessert? GELATO
At Duemila (Via Isonzo, 76011 Bisceglie BT, Italy) you’ll find amazing desserts, ice cream sundaes, as well as the ice cream itself. There is also such a snowball (Sospiro) to choose from, which has a thick layer of ice cream meringue on the outside, comes with pistachio sauce and pistachios on top.
Being in Italy for a week, we ate ice cream every day, but in this place it was the best, not so sweet, full of flavor, and the portions were right too.
Here is our find at the grocery store. It tasted cool, and all I can say is that it tasted like good milk chocolate. (The cost was €2, I think)
Before a trip we like to google some recommended places with food. We search on blogs, on youtube, and sometimes I just search on google maps using the appropriate filters.
This way, in Bari, we ended up at a place called MR.Burrata (Via Scipione Crisanzio, 38, 70122 Bari BA, Italy)
oooo, what a hit it was!
We were there just after 9 a.m., there were no queues, and the smiling gentleman immediately started asking us about the ingredients to make this wonder.
It seems to me that every day you can get different combinations of these rolls, because the second time we were there, the gentleman had smoked burrata to offer, which was not available a few days ago.
But one by one. Each version of the bun is €5, and there is a choice of basil or pistachio pesto, a choice of meat and toppings (capers, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.), and finally burrata and a topping: pistachios or parmesan. This is served in a baked roll. You can eat such a sandwich for a good few hours.
In Bisceglie, unfortunately, we couldn’t find a restaurant for dinner that offered pasta and that was open a little earlier than 8 pm.
Therefore, we have a little dissatisfaction.
.
Attractions in the city
Basilica of San Giuseppe
We’re not fans of visiting churches, but walking down the street, you can’t help but notice the huge building with a beautiful square around it. It makes an impression.
The architectural style of the building itself follows the austere and solemn lines of typical Romanesque art of Puglia.
Beaches
There are several nice beaches in the area, rocky ones. You can easily get there on your feet, from the center it’s a 20,30-minute walk. And on the beaches themselves locals sunbathe and swim. Certainly the places are not crowded. What I must point out here is that you should take your water shoes with you. Without them, walking to the sea is like walking on nails. It can be done, but why bother.
Some of the recommended beaches are: Spiaggia il Braccio, Spiaggia Salsello and Spiaggia della Libertà.
Oh, and the fact that often these beaches are simply littered. This certainly curbs the charm of these places.
Walking around the city
One of our favorite activities, while in another city, is to take steps. Exploring the streets, so that you get lost somewhere and get into the rhythm of the city and everyday life. This is also when the best photos come out.
Bisceglie is a small town, it doesn’t have the attractions you’d enjoy all week (except for the food and beaches, of course), but we definitely wanted to spend this trip unhurried, without much sightseeing. In fact, there is everything you need in this city not yet discovered by tourists.
As I mentioned before, you can take the train to many tourist destinations, such as Bari, Barletta, Fogia, Polignano a Mare, Monopoli, and Matera. For Matera, however, you already have to use a car or bus.
We did not want to rent a car. The driving style of Italians is very peculiar, and more than once we would be run over at a green pedestrian light. Even looking around at an intersection, a motorcycle may pull out right under your feet ☹.
And parking? I thought people were joking, telling us that a car has to tap the vehicle in front of it and the vehicle behind it in order to drive out of a parking space, standing parallel. And yet! I noticed that, for the most part, locals are not taken in by the condition of their cars. Tarnished lamps from the sun, bent bumpers, bruises. That’s where the atmosphere is.
During this stay we were also in Giovinazzo, a town very similar to Bisceglie. 2 times we went to Bari. On the subject of Bari, I will not elaborate here. We only visited a few places there, mostly we took steps or sat in the park with a book. We were disappointed with the beach. Overall it was nice, but I would have regretted staying in Bari for that whole week.
A ! And I can recommend one more pastry shop in Baria. It’s called Croissant Croissant (Via Quintino Sella, 91, 70122 Bari BA, Italy). I ate probably the best Croissant with pistachios there, and it cost maybe 3€.
I think that’s enough of the stories about Bisceglie. A town worth visiting. They have delicious food, coffee, ice cream and quiet locals.
But what about the language? Few people there speak English, but we had no problem communicating. You can be shown a particular item on the menu, you can sign a little, and the best way is to write in a text translator so it translates into Italian.
At the end, I will post a few more photos from Bari.
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