After flying from Palermo to Foggia on October 28, my wife and I will need to spend about 24 hours in either Foggia or Bari before catching the October 29 overnight ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik. Which city is a more desirable stay...or perhaps somewhere in between (via train connection)?

I'm afraid I don't have any information for you, but I'm topping this so someone who knows the area will see your question.

I'll be interested in hearing about your trip since we almost decided to taker the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik several years ago.

There are many people on this forum who can give you answere. (They have certainly helped us as we plan our fall trip to Puglia and Basilicata.)


Have a great trip!

Byrd

Andria/Trani area is in between those two cities and there is much to see in the environs, but you would need a car to make the most of the limited time. There appear to be train connections to Barletta and Bitonto and both of those reportedly have sights of interest.

You might want to take a look at the comprehensive report by Franco, who just spent time in the area with overnights in Bitonto:




http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-revisited.cfm

We fell for the little harbour town of Trani when spending a few days there in mid-September of 2009...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/pugliagen

It's 50 minutes or so from Foggia, with trains roughly hourly .... and about the same again on to Bari - but watch out for a gap or two in the timetable!

Peter

I've stayed in Molfetta twice, but only because I had a free place to stay at the home of a friend, so I can't recommend a hotel or even if Molfetta the best choice. We traveled to nearby towns by both train and bus, enjoying daytrips to Barletta, Trani, Giovinazzo, Bitonto, and Bari. Since neither my friend nor I drive, public transport is our only option.

My experience was that Bitonto was inland from the main train line. However, there is reasonable bus service. We traveled from Molfetta, and the bus traveled to Giovinazzo before turning inland toward Bitonto. We also took the bus to Trani, just to see if the route offered better views than the train, and found that it followed virtually the same route. When we visited Barletta we took the train.

Here's my trip report of my more recent visit to that area:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

I dunno Foggia, but Bari is a least favorite of mine. I took overnight ferry from Dubro (affordable cabin, but the dining room had cockroaches) and spent a day in Bari waiting for ongoing ferry to Greece. There is a mildly interesting old part of town. The saint Nick (santa clause) church was closed to tourists due to a wedding, and a historic fort was closed for repairs.

The town was swarming with big houseflies (may/june). I desperately searched for a decent gelato place, as this was my only time in Italy for a year or two. I only found one up to normal Italian standards, and ate multiple big dishes of... what's this down at the bottom... did they put raisins in? No, flies got in!

Eateries didn't look attractive, and getting your own food from little groceries were a problem due to aggressive siesta shutdown. Well, Palermo and Dubro are fantastic anyway. When walking the Dub wall, be aware that your ticket includes that isolated coastal fort just north of the wall. Be sure and visit before your ticket expires because it's views are best of all.

There is "aggressive siesta shutdown" throughout the Italian south.

There are quite a few well-regarded restaurants and trattorie in Bari.

From my praise of Palermo, I expected to be interpreted as maybe knowing something of southern Italian standards, and to be saying Bari siesta was aggressive even in southern terms. Actually the widespread shutdown of even "convenience" stores was perhaps similar to most towns of it's size but not for ones with such high transient influx, which was probably the bread and butter of those businesses. Locals can work around their hours, but not short timers.

All similar sized Italian towns have well regarded eateries, but here their "appearance" (all I mentioned) had an unusual air of descrepitude. Maybe because their front door was a source of swarms of (surely short and seasonal) big flies, which also circled samples set out or uncleared tables. Staff just seemed to give up caring. I especially remember one with a gaping cold sore that disfigured much of her lip and she seemed to consider it customers problem rather than hers - something I would not expect in other Italian towns where pride and presentation is valued.

That does sound pretty grim! You are certainly not the first traveler that fail to be charmed by that city!

Thanks to all who responded with advice