Waiting for the ferry in Bari

Find the pictures here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ctMDz62sSr3s8WoR9

I am glad i decided to begin my journey with a boat crossing, getting to the start of the via egnatia the same way the Romans did, over the Adriatic. Bari was avmuch more interesting place than I'd  anticipated.
My day began early, with a 5.30 breakfast. What a champion airbnb host!  And such a good breakfast as well. Serrano ham, several other cured meats, manchego cheese, freshly squeezed orange juice, toast, coffee. Amazing.
Bari provided a bit more kindness with someone giving me their train ticket as they could no longer use it. 5 euros saved. Emerged from the train station into a very warm south mediterranean. Bari is full of high end shops. Louis vuitton etc  etc, lined the lovely pedestrian mall leading to the sea.
Collecting my ferry ticket provided confusion and amusement. The person behind the counter asked for both my passports, which i thought odd. She processed one and started on the other and then looked up puzzled and said "are you two people?" My immediate thought was that she thought i was someone with multiple personalities! Then i realised she had thought the second passport belonged to my not walking partner. I had booked a berth for him but he was no longer coming. I was pleased it had put a smile on her face because up till then she had looked like she really hated her job.
Two in the afternoon and i was finally free to explore.  Bari has a very attractive medieval  area, tiny lanes, close packed houses and all sorts of interesting features. I stumbled across a wonderful local eatery that turned ot to be a tourist attraction. No menu, just a woman cooking pasta outside her house. Can't  say the food was amazing but the experience was. It was slightly surreal to be eating my lunch and suddenly be surrounded by a tour group snapping the cook at work. My advice  to the chef is go easier on the salt.
Despite the tour groups al over the place, i still felt as if i had walked into the world of cinema paradiso. Lots of loud italian voices, so different to the deep quiet of french villages. Lots of old ladies sitting in their doorways making pasta by hand. It was lovely seeing a grandmother working with her grandaughters (?). Although once again, they were one of the tourist attractions of the town.
Discovered that Bari is big on chillis, but i found the giant one in front of the Norman castle rather phallic...
Saw a little chapel and went in for a sit down in the shade and charged my phone. Thanks roman catholic church. Apparently it is the chapel of the holy power point.And now it was time to meet my not walking companion, who, not being able to accompany me, was here to do a driving holiday instead. I had a good time chatting and consuming beer, before tipsily stumbling to the ferry port. And here i sit, noticing that one of the passport control officers has been chatting on her phone the whole time I've  been here!