A freighter glides past Molfetta Vecchia (the town's historical center) on its way into the commercial harbour. 
Not only vampires, but mutant pigeons can be found in Trani! This specimen has a suspiciously intelligent, and vaguely bloodthirsty, look in its eye...perhaps it's a vampigeon!
These are a few photos I took while walking through Trani's Historical Center. The photo above is a detail inside a courtyard.
This wall encloses another courtyard.
Love this gentleman exiting the Demarinis Salumeria (delicatessen) and the shiny red bike, but darn that car for getting in the way!
This is a capentry shop filled with dust and worktables.
To follow up on my vampire insinuations of the other day, I decided to visit the Diocesan Museum in the town of Trani. Housed in this museum is a bust of Monsignor Davanzati, Archbishop of Trani in the early 1700s and author of a Dissertation on Vampires, which was not a novel, but the most exhaustive analysis of the vampire phenomenon ever written. It has chapters with titles like "On the Power Delegated to the Demon" and "Which Physical Causes Could Produce Vampire Appearances." 
This is the altar in the uppermost level of the church. Below this level are two crypts and even further down a hypogeum, or underground, pre-Christian temple or tomb.
This fellow was industriously holding up one of the columns along the side wall of the church.
A fresco and altarpiece in the upper of the two crypts.
A statue of Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim, for whom the cathedral is named, is located in the lower crypt. This is not the St. Nick of Christmas lore (he is the patron saint of Bari, the capital of this region), but another Nicholas altogether. He came from the east to meet the Pope, but only made it as far as Trani before starving to death, according to some, or being assassinated, according to others, in 1094. 
The steeple of St. Joseph's parish is crisscrossed by the lines and wires located along the train tracks which pass close by. See that blue sky? I love it!
No, not *that* Twilight! Just the plain old time of day "twilight." We have no tradition of vampires here in Molfetta. If you're looking for those, you'll have to travel two towns up the Adriatic coast to Trani, where they have a long tradition of vampire lore and even have archaeological "proof" of their existence!
Seems fitting that this church should be located at the corner of Via Paradiso and Via Immacolata.
What better to lift your spirits on a cold and wet February night than a stop at the Ice Cream Cremeria's new locale. Not only do they have a wide variety of delicious ice cream flavours, made fresh each day, but they also make various frozen desserts and treats.
It's Carneval time again and these are three of the four floats in this year's parade.
I was lucky enough to find them parked and waiting for today's parade early this morning before I went to work. Lucky because otherwise I could never have shared them with you because I refuse to go to Carneval parades.
I am a cold weather wimp and just cannot embrace any sort of activity that forces me to be outside in the evening in the nasty cold and bone-chillingly damp climate we have here at this time of year. Plus the whole crowd scene...I do not handle crowds well!
...then just dump your junk under this handy bridge. I'm sure no one will notice or mind. And someone else will come clean it up. What a perfect solution for dealing with your large refuse! Or not...
Found outside the tobacconist's shop on Via Baccarini:
The wedding I showed you two posts ago continued yesterday with a lunch held at a beautiful restaurant on the sea at Polignano a Mare, located about an hour's drive south of Molfetta.
Let me introduce you to the groom today. His name is Fulvio and he is from Molfetta. He works as as a certified public accountant. He has good taste in women and restaurants, because Katja is a doll and the lunch was absolutely delicious, all seafood from the hors d'oeuvres on.
This is a view of Polignano from the window of the restaurant. Sorry if it's a bit blotchy, but the window was covered with sea spray. Polignano is famous for being the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, one of the most famous Italian singer/songwriters of all time.
Vittoria Facchini is a Molfettan artist and is pictured here in her studio. In addition to painting, she is also an illustrator of children's books and has published a few books of her own. One of these is an illustrated version of the traditional Molfettan Christmas song, the Santa Allegrezza, which was released in December. To see a couple of photos about that event, click here and here. In the photo above she was discussing her "Pin-Up" series, which is inspired by 1950's pin-up calendars.
Her studio is a colorful and crazy collection of a thousand different odds and ends, plus two cats who crawl all over everything. I couldn't get a photo of them because they just wouldn't sit still. Vittoria wasn't all that easy to stop either!
A wedding at the City Hall is much simpler than a church wedding. A city functionary reads the bride and groom the obligations that marriage implies (for example: cohabitation, support of the family by both the husband and the wife, supporting any children and guiding them into the career of their choice). Then both the couple and their witnesses sign a lot of papers and presto, bingo, they're married!
What a beautiful bride! Her name is Katia and she is not from Molfetta, nor even Italian actually. She is Bulgarian, studied to be a beautician in Germany and works in the tourism industry here in Apulia. She speaks Bulgarian, Russian, German, Italian and English...pretty impressive! 
This is the main train station of a transportation company that runs trains and buses through the Apulia and Basilicata regions. This station is located in the center of Bari and I think it's interesting that the tracks are raised. Below the tracks you see here on the right are shops and offices. I imagine they have noise and vibration issues!
Olive trees can live to be hundreds of years old and have amazing patterns in their bark. 
This one is a tree with a view!
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