Back in February when I planned to go to Bari, I contacted Noemi but she replied quite late and I changed my plan. This time, I contacted her again. Even though she replied a bit late (again) she said I could stay with her for a couple of nights in Bari, the first stop of my unplanned trip around Puglia.

And the reason I contacted her in the first place? Probably because she said she liked breakfast!

I boarded the train in Bologna on Tuesday morning, worked a little bit on my Macbook and turned on 3G to checked my Whatsapp and saw the message Noemi sent me.

‘…I just woke up with fever…in case I’ll be very bad I will ask my friends if they can host you…let’s see…’

Great, something to get excited about even before I arrive in Puglia.

But I wasn’t that worried, I was already on the train anyway so whatever would happen I could find a solution once I arrived.

Once in Bari, I went to her flat and she greeted me with a wide smile, even when didn’t feel 100% well. I could stay at her place but on the sofa and not in her bedroom (which would have been more than what I expected for) I left after a while and let her rest while I went out to explore the city.

Bari was so charming. The buildings might not be very particular or beautiful, but I could feel the liveliness here. Maybe it was because I got to talk and meet a lot of people from here, bloggers, grandmas who let me in to their kitchen and showed me how to make orecchiette and without trying to sell anything to me like others, and Daniela, Noemi’s friend from Trento who just arrived back in Bari that morning.

The first time I saw her, she was exactly like I imagined my documentary to look like, light blond hair, bright blue eyes and playful red lips, the colour scheme of my documentary.

I had to tell her about my documentary, and asked if I could film her little bit. Of course she didn’t object, just not while she was enjoying her focaccia Barese.



After a short while, I found out that we have some things in common. Daniela left Bari to go to university 6 years ago, she also went to Porto, Portugal, for her Erasmus semester and spent two months in Australia with AFS, with which she was also a volunteer in Trento.



We strolled around bari, kept chatting away and eating the delicious focaccia until we reached the train station and each of us went home for dinner. Then we met again at a bar on the other side of the train station, where they spent their teenage years hanging out. Every Tuesday night there was a live Salento folk music and people would dance and jumped around with this traditional dance called Pizzica. I learned to mimic them and joined the crowd for a bit.

And I fell in love, right then, with the liveliness of this place, the atmosphere and the energy, the happiness in the air.



Being by the sea, I wanted to eat fresh seafood. So before I left Bari, Noemi organised a small seafood lunch for us, starting from two, by the time the pasta was ready we were seven.

I loved how this lengthly lunch with lovely friends started from me say to Noemi that I wanted to eat seafood.



Sergio, Noemi’s boyfriend, was the chef for today and he cooked cavatelli con frutti di mari, or a typical pasta with seafood. Started from some snacked and white wine, we then enjoyed the delicious pasta topped with chopped fresh parsley and lemon zest from Noemi’s garden along with some music from Italy, Portugal and Thailand. The meal ended with a few shorts of homemade limoncello and other citrusy liquor. By the time we all left, it was 4 in the afternoon.

It was time for me, too, to say goodbye to Noemi, her lovely friends and Bari.

My trip in Puglia began with smiles, laughters and memorable moments. I was already in love, it that was just the beginning.