Bari

The biggest city in the region, Bari is a major port and a transit point for travelers catching ferries across the Adriatic to Greece, Croatia, and Albania. It's also a cosmopolitan city with one of the most interesting historic centers in the region. Most of Bari is set out in a logical 19th-century grid, following the designs of Joachim Murat (1767-1815), Napoléon's brother-in-law and King of the Two Sicilies. The heart of the modern town is Piazza della Libertà, but just beyond it, across Corso Vittorio Emanuele, is the città vecchia (old town), a maze of narrow streets on the promontory that juts out between Bari's old and new ports, circumscribed by Via Venezia, offering elevated views of the Adriatic in every direction.