Commercial and administrative capital of Puglia, a university town and the mezzogiorno's second city, BARI has its fair share of interest. But although an economically vibrant place, it harbours no pretensions about being a major tourist attraction. Primarily people come here for work or to leave for Greece on its many ferries.

Bari was already a thriving centre when the Romans arrived. Later the city was the seat of the Byzantine governor of southern Italy, while under the Normans Bari rivalled Venice, both as a maritime centre and, following the seizure of the remains of St Nicholas, as a place of pilgrimage. Since those heady days Bari has declined considerably. Its fortunes revived briefly in 1813 when the king of Naples foisted a planned expansion upon the city - giving the centre its contemporary gridded street pattern, wide avenues and piazzas. And Mussolini instituted a university and left a legacy of strident Fascist architecture. But the city was heavily bombed during the last war, and today its vigorous centre is a symbol of the south's zeal for commercial growth at the expense of local identity and character