Bari Geography

Bari sits halfway down Italy's Adriatic coast on a low, flat shelf of limestone, and the site was chosen for the one feature the coastline otherwise lacks.

The promontory

This shore runs remarkably straight for tens of kilometres, with few natural indentations. Bari occupies a small rounded headland that interrupts it, giving shelter on two sides at once. The old town fills that headland; the harbour to the north-west is the modern commercial and ferry port, and the smaller basin to the south-east is the old fishing harbour.

The Terra di Bari

Inland the ground rises very gently into the Terra di Bari, a limestone plain of olive groves, almond and vine that runs back towards the Murgia plateau. It is intensively farmed and has been for millennia; the olive oil economy here is one of the largest in Italy.

No rivers, only lame

There are no true rivers. What cross the plain instead are lame — shallow, flat-bottomed karst channels, dry for most of the year, which carry water only after heavy rain. The Lama Balice runs just north of the city. They flood fast and hard when they do run, which has been a recurring municipal problem.

The city's shore

Bari swims off its own doorstep. South of the old harbour the coast is low rock and concrete platforms, with one proper sand beach, Pane e Pomodoro, inside the city limits. The water is shallow and clear over limestone, and the better beaches begin a short way down the coast towards Polignano and Monopoli, where the shore turns to low cliff.

Flat and low

The city centre stands only a few metres above the sea, and the whole urban area is flat enough that the two landmarks visible from any distance are the cathedral campanile and the port cranes.