What is the Bari outdoor escape game?
The Bari outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out onto the streets: you play on your smartphone, and each of the 10 stops holds a puzzle that you crack by studying the surroundings and reasoning it through. Count on about 2 hours, including 35 minutes of walking over roughly 2.5 km, and begin on whatever day suits you.
The puzzles sit at the Teatro Petruzzelli, Piazza Mercantile with its Column of Justice, the Basilica of St Nicholas, the Swabian castle and other landmarks. Each one stands alone, so no storyline ties them together, and up to three levels of hints are on hand when you get stuck. Bari Vecchia suits this format, because its white stone lanes between the seafront and the castle reward anyone who looks closely.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 35 min · 2.5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at each stop from what is in front of you and the clues around it. No background knowledge of Bari is needed.
Look closer
The answers sit in façades, fountains, columns and the details of each square, so keep your eyes on the building fronts.
Walk
Google Maps guides you from stop to stop: about 35 minutes on foot over roughly 2.5 km through the Murat district and the old town.
Take your time
No countdown is running. Use a hint when you need one, stop for a coffee and pick the game up later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends on a day out
The puzzles give every stop something to debate, and nobody has to know the city before setting off.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps you talking as you wander from the seafront into the old town, with no clock ticking.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 people each play on their own phone and decide for themselves how to split the work.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Piazza Umberto I to Largo Albicocca
10 stops · about 35 min walking · start: Piazza Umberto I Gardens · finish: Largo Albicocca
The game starts in the Piazza Umberto I Gardens in the Murat district and passes the Teatro Petruzzelli and the Teatro Margherita over the sea. Piazza del Ferrarese brings you into the old town, from where you pass the Fortino di Sant'Antonio, Piazza Mercantile, the Basilica of St Nicholas, Bari Cathedral and the Castello Normanno-Svevo, and you finish at Largo Albicocca. Daylight makes the best start, since rain and wind slow an outdoor game. Google Maps leads you between stops, the app lets you change the order, and the puzzles need no entry tickets.
Open the route map ↗
1Piazza Umberto I GardensStart
This large garden square lies in the Murat district, the grid-plan new town laid out from 1813 under Joachim Murat, King of Naples. Palms shade its paths, and on one side stands the Palazzo Ateneo, the historic seat of the University of Bari.
Read the full story →
2Teatro Petruzzelli
Opened in 1903 on Corso Cavour, the Teatro Petruzzelli was built by the merchant brothers Onofrio and Antonio Petruzzelli and is one of the largest opera houses in Italy. A fire destroyed its interior in 1991, and it only reopened in 2009 after a long reconstruction.
Read the full story →
3Teatro Margherita
The Teatro Margherita stands on piles over the sea at the end of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and opened in 1914 in Liberty style. It is said to have been built on the water because an agreement with the Petruzzelli family stopped the city from allowing a new theatre on its land. After decades of neglect it has been restored as an exhibition venue.
Read the full story →
4Piazza del Ferrarese
This square at the edge of the old town opens onto the seafront and is said to be named after Stefano Ferrarese, a merchant from Ferrara who lived here in the 17th century. Under glass in the paving you can see a stretch of an ancient Roman road.
Read the full story →
5Fortino di Sant'Antonio
This small fort on the old town's seafront was part of the walls that once protected Bari from attacks by sea. It takes its name from a chapel of St Anthony Abbot, and from its terrace you look out over the waterfront and the old harbour.
Read the full story →
6Piazza Mercantile
For centuries this was the main market square of Bari's old town. On one side stands the Sedile dei Nobili, the former seat of the noble council, with its clock tower. In a corner rises the Column of Justice with a stone lion, where, according to tradition, debtors who could not pay were tied and publicly mocked.
Read the full story →
7Basilica of St Nicholas
The basilica was begun in 1087 to house the relics of St Nicholas, which sailors from Bari had taken from Myra in Asia Minor that year, and was consecrated in 1197. Its plain Romanesque front became a model for churches across Apulia, and the saint's tomb in the crypt draws Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims.
Read the full story →
8Bari Cathedral (San Sabino)
The cathedral, dedicated to St Sabinus, was rebuilt in Apulian Romanesque style from the late 12th century, after King William I of Sicily had destroyed the city in 1156. Look up at the large rose window on its white stone front. The crypt holds the relics of St Sabinus.
9Castello Normanno-Svevo
The castle was founded by the Normans and rebuilt by Emperor Frederick II around 1233. In the 16th century it was strengthened with bastions and became the court of Isabella of Aragon and her daughter Bona Sforza, later Queen of Poland. A moat still runs around much of it.
Read the full story →
10Largo AlbicoccaFinish
Largo Albicocca is a small square among the narrow lanes of Bari's old town. Locals also call it Piazza degli Innamorati, the lovers' square, and in the evening it fills with people meeting at its outdoor tables.
Read the full story →
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.