In a nutshell: This place was amazing! Fabio and Terry are a young couple that has just started their business and took great care of us!
We spent 5 days around New Year and I will break down our impressions in categories (recommendations for trips & restaurants at the bottom):
Communication & Personal Touch:
Terry and Fabio came to visit us on the first evening, greet us and bring some breakfast. They responded immediately to any requests we had, let us check out later than planned, organized a cab for us to take us to the airport etc. Really one of the better AirBnB experiences we have had.
Location:
The location is TOP. In the old city, next to an impressive church (basilica San Nicola), has restaurants, bars, shops nearby, but it is *quiet*. There are no noisy places in the immediate vicinity. We found Bari's old city to be ideally situated - close enough to walk to the central station (about 20 mins walking), close enough to new part of the city where all the "typical" shops are (about 10 mins walking), all the while giving you a feeling of really living in a medieval town. The place itself is located in a tiny tiny alley, really picturesque.
Cleanliness and amenities:
The apartment was spotlessly clean and it had everything. It was also very spacious with essentially 4 beds for grown-ups (in two different rooms) and a room where children could sleep, as well as a fully equipped kitchen. At the time of writing there was no washing machine directly there but there was a possibility to wash clothes at the families of Fabio and Terry who live next door.
Restaurants recommendations:
We've traveled a lot in Italy and, as we all know, the food and drinks are generally good everywhere. Having said that I would like to recommend two places in particular:
1) "Al Pescatore" restaurant (it is reachable < 10 mins by foot). It is a *great* fish restaurant, make sure you try the sea urchins (local specialty). For Bari standards it is a bit on the pricey side (Bari is not expensive) but well worth it.
2) "Noh Samba", which is an Asian fusion ("Nikkei", the Peruvian interpretation of Japanese cuisine") place that also has *stunning* cocktails. It has honestly been one of the most memorable restaurant experiences we have ever had. Maybe because the place was not expected to be found in a provincial Italian town, you could put it in Tokyo/Berlin/Milan/Paris etc. and it would fit right in and be popular. It's rather expensive for Bari but wholeheartedly recommendable.
Culture:
Do not miss out on Teatro Petruzelli. It is the 4th largest opera house in Italy, sadly we could not get tickets for an event but it seems it is well worth a visit. It is <15 mins walking from the house and it is right next to "Noh Samba" restaurant
Day Trips:
Puglia is very rich in culture and has a lot more to offer than just Bari. We did several day trips, all of them *without* booking any expensive tours that pick you up from Bari and take you to the location. We just went by public transport and yes, despite what you might have heard about public transportation in Southern Italy, it really worked out well and we had no issues:
A) Trip to Alberobello: Home of the famous Truli houses, you could read that by *bus* by buying tickets from Trenitalia train station. The bus station is right behind the train station and it takes around 1.5h to go there. The bus ticket is < 5 euro per person.
B) Trip to Matera: Europe's cultural capital of 2019, a unique place where people have been living for the past 9000 years... It is really worth a visit, check it out on Wiki or so before going there. There are two neighborhoods there where all the houses have been literally built out from caves. To visit it, take the train from the "Ferrovia Apuglia Lucane" station which is next to the Trenitalia station, the price is 10 euro per person in one direction.
C) Trips to Polignano a Mare and Monopoli: These are two little picturesque towns on the coastline, south of Bari. You could take the train from the Trenitalia station, both town lie on the same line so you could visit them both with one ticket (tickets are valid 4 hours after stamping).
That's all there is to it, we stayed for 4 nights and greatly enjoyed out trip! Hope you do the same :)