Bed and Breakfast Abbazia Degli Svevi

This small apartment had what I needed, and the location was great. It's in the old part of Bari, surrounded by a characteristic atmosphere and many churches, especially the one most famous for St. Nicholas. The room was characteristic too, with one bed or separate beds and a TV on the wall. There was a small fridge, coffee machine, tea machine, toilet, bidet, shower, sink, mirror, and free Wi-Fi. The owner communicated by email and WhatsApp, and sent information and video instructions for finding and entering the apartment.

I felt like I was staying in a cave, since this basement apartment was quite humid. It did stay cool on hot days, though. The location in the old town is one of the nicest areas in Bari. If I return to Bari, I'd look specifically for this place again.

Call the owner before you arrive. They were very friendly, and everything was clean. The apartment is right in the center of Bari's Old Town, a beautiful spot, though you should expect some noise from churches, motorbikes, and the Italians themselves.

At € 90 a night, this place felt outrageous for what we got. The room was tiny and damp, with no daylight, and the daytime service was lacking: we came back in the evening to the same unmade bed and full trash can. Breakfast was the bare minimum, and we had to pay for anything extra, even a second coffee. We were allowed one coffee and one brioche each at a little cafe nearby. It had juice, toast, and eggs too, so Abbazia degli Svevi could have arranged something more decent for guests. I like two coffees in the morning, and paying for a bed AND BREAKFAST only to pay extra for the second cup put me out of sorts. We also had to pay to store our luggage at the train station because there was nowhere to leave it before check-in or after check-out. The self check-in itself was fine, with a code sent by text for a key box, but there was no reception, staff, or common area. The photos were misleading. I expected a charming, authentic monastery-style room, but room nr. 3 was a small cellar vault at the back of the building. Its only window, with a curtain, opened onto the hallway, so there was absolutely no daylight and the room felt damp. They might have made it attractive with thoughtful lighting or an abbey theme, like a monk's cell. Instead, there was a modern painting in the bedroom and an Egyptian papyrus in the bathroom, with no sense of design, just random things on the walls. The wardrobe was a small niche down a few steps from the bedroom. It had two rails with hangers and a board for the coffee machine, but nowhere else to put clothes that couldn't hang. I had to leave my underwear and socks by the coffee. There was also a dusty bucket of coal in the niche. I don't know what it was for, since there was no oven or anything that needed coal, and as decoration it was just weird. The niche also contained a humming fridge and electric heater, and a curtain would have been nice to screen all those household appliances. The bathroom lighting was poor and the mirror tiny, which made it hard to put in my contact lenses and do my makeup before dinner. The shower was an oversized wellness setup with massage jets at different levels, but it had no water pressure and the cabin was far too small for it. A regular shower head would have made more sense. There was no soap, so we tore open the single-use shower gel sachets and used small amounts to wash our hands. After two years of pandemic, surely soap dispensers are familiar by now; providing one would be easy, but apparently that was too much to ask. The Wi-Fi practically never worked. € 50 a night would probably be fair for this place, for shoestring travelers who don't ask for much. Charging € 90 for a damp, windowless little room, with no care for the guests, a meager breakfast, and extra fees to store luggage felt audacious.