Bari Walking Tour with Pasta Experience

Velo Service offers a variety of tours and experiences but this one was probably one of the most authentic. Giada, our tour guide, managed a group of seven tourists speaking 3 different languages and she did it quite well, all while being knowledgeable and entertaining. We got to visit all the major landmarks of the city and got to learn their history as well as making a few stops to try local foods (getting to skip the line at Panificio Fiore was great). The tour led us along the Lungomare where there was a surprise performance by a local tarantela musician in which we got to participate. The tour concluded with a small pasta class on how to make orecchiette, which was taught by Donna Carmela, who is somewhat of a local celebrity and institution. It would take us years to reach her level of expertise at making this deceptively simple looking pasta, but it was a joy to watch her work. Of course, we also got to try the orecchiette with a simple tomato sauce. It was truly an authentic experience.

Absolutely brilliant tour! Our guide was fantastic with so much knowledge and passion for the city! The pasta making experience was a real highlight Of our whole trip! Could not recommend this more! We visited in October and it was a great time to experience Bari and the tour! We were made to feel very safe With Covid precautions put in place very effectively!

The tour was great and Anna our guide was lovely! It was supposed to be a 3hour tour and it seemed to finish at least half an hour too soon. The pasta making was lovely however the portions we got to eat were quite small as there were 11 of us. I guess the more you make, the more you eat so if you choose this then make sure you make enough for yourselves to have a good meal. Lovely experience otherwise :

An rivetingly interesting history lesson, told through the architecture of the Old Town and its buildings. This tour was a roughly 3 hour walking classroom with an incredibly knowledgeable guide, Francesco. It is impossible not to find this informative walk uninteresting, because I found the history of Bari revalationary. Unless you are a history scholar you find Bari importantly linked to Saint Nicolas, Byzantium, William the Bad to Federico II, The Falcon of Palermo, Venice, the Spanish Reign, and the list goes on, while the architecture explains the connections. Then you arrive at Lady Camillas house for a lesson in making orchietti pasta. Sample a quick dish of the same with a glass of wine, and its off to the Cathedral and the rest of the tour. Kudos to Francesco our guide. There was not a question he could not answer, plus his English was exemplary. I highly recommend this tour if you would like to know the history of Bari or get a feel for the Old Town.

Pasta makiing was really bad, the lady didnt even greet us and rushed the thing through with max. 10 minutes hands-on time. She binned our pasta ad served us her own to speed things up, she was visibly annoyed when we asked her if we can wash the kids hands beforehand of course she didnt case, the pasta was binned anyway. Next day we rented bikes from the same company, which were basically broken, but didnt get refunded. However, the tour guide, Marie Luisa, was absolutely great in every respect, very friendly and knowledgeable and super-spontaneous and compassionate with our tired kids. So she saved the day for the company, which left a mdeiocre impression overall. Thanks Marie-Luisa!!!

I would not recommend this tour at all. There are lots of FREE walking tours of Bari but we selected this one because of the pasta making class. First of all, the tour company combined three English speakers with 5 German speakers. The guide tried very hard to speek to both groups but her time was monopolized by the Germans. The pasta class was really a bust. The ladies were grouchy and impatient, spoke no English, seemed to just want to get the class over with and never turned their TV off or down. They moved so fast making the pasta that you could NOT tell what they were doing. They did not seem to care if you learned the technique or not. At the end, they slopped about 1/2 cup of the orecchiette pasta in some bowls and cups, gave us a small plastic cup of terrible wine and pretty much showed us the door. Honestly, I think they are tired of doing this so they should just quit.

Our tour guide Gianluca was great. He is very knowledgeable and passionate about his town which made the tour very interesting. There was only 4 in the tour which allowed Gianluca to give us his full attention which was great. Highly recommend the tour and Gianluca. Thanks for a great Day

Great tour! really enjoyed Michel's insights and in depth knowledge of Bari, art, architecture and history. Great tour!

This was one of the best tours I've ever been on. Our guide, Grazia was fabulous and we left the city feeling we had really experienced it with the locals! Unforgettable

We have been staying on Conversant for two months and have been to Bar a few times. We signed up for this tour to get a different look at Bar but also mostly for the cooking class part of the tour. That was the biggest disappointment- it was not a cooking class at all. We went to the women's house- sat down- she make a snake of pasta dough that was already made- made some shapes of pasta- cooked up some fresh pasta and served it with jarred sauce- one of us had a beer, one wine. We tried making the shapes of pasta and that was it. Not sure if we just didn't get the right deal, looking at pictures from other tours but if this is the way the tour is then don't call is a cooking class because it is not. On a positive note, our tour guide Sabastino was great- very friendly and informative- he made the walking part of the tour great.