Travel and Venue
MEMEA 2011 will take place at the Hotel Villa Romanazzi Carducci in Bari which is the capital city of Apulia on the Adriatic Sea in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy and is well known as a port and university.
The city itself has a decreasing population of about 320,000, as of 2009, over 116km², while the fast-growing urban area counts 653,028 inhabitants over 203km². Another 500,000 people live in the metropolitan area.
People have come to know Bari as 'California of the South', which is a title given to the city for its amazing growth and leadership compared to other areas in the South. Bari is a land of beauty and elegance. Having a plethora of ancient monuments, churches, caves, and cathedral Bari attracts people from different parts of the world. It is made up of different urban sections. The northern part of the city has the famous Basilica of Saint Nicholas, San Sabino Cathdral and the Castello Svevo of Frederick . The northern part of the city has an active night life. To the south is the Murat quarter (erected by Joachim Murat), the modern heart of the city, which is laid out on a rectangular grid-plan with a promenade on the sea and the major shopping district.
Cuisine and gastronomy
Bari's cuisine, one of Italy's most traditional and noteworthy, is based on three typical agricultural products found within the surrounding Puglia region, namely wheat, olive oil and wine. Bari cuisine is also enriched by the wide variety of fruit and vegetables produced locally. Local flour is used in homemade bread and pasta production including, most notably, the famous orecchiette and cavatelli.
Transportation:
Bari is easily accessible by road, train and flight.
By train: the train station is Bari Centrale (piazza Aldo Moro). Complete informations on the train schedules can be found (in Italian and English) on the web pages of TRENITALIA www.trenitalia.com). Trenitalia runs trains from Bari to all rest of Italy.
By flight: Bari airport is located at Palese, around five miles to the west of the city, and is also known as Bari Palese. It is officially named Aeroporto di Bari Karol Wojtyla.
The cheapest way of getting into Bari is to take the urban bus service run by Bari transport company AMTAB. This bus, the number 16, runs from the airport to Piazza Aldo Moro, by Bari's main railway station, Bari Centrale. It stops several times along the route through the city centre. Timetables are available on the AMTAB website.
A faster but more expensive alternative is the Tempesta shuttle bus, which runs directly to the railway station, stopping outside in Piazza Aldo Moro. This speedy service runs until 11:20pm at the time of writing, takes 20 minutes, and unlike most Italian bus services, you can pay the driver. Both the Tempesta shuttle and the AMTAB 16 bus depart from right outside the terminal building, and there are big signs to make the bus stops easy to find. Timetables are displayed on the bus stops.
A third option is to catch a taxi.
