Puglia · Bari
Giovinazzo
An Adriatic fishing port twenty kilometers northwest of Bari, with a Norman cathedral and a Bronze Age dolmen in the agro inland.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Giovinazzo is on our list
It holds Città dell'Olio.
Subscribe and you get Giovinazzo's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 31 min from Bari
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 19,156
- J13°
- F15°
- M15°
- A18°
- M23°
- J28°
- J31°
- A31°
- S27°
- O23°
- N18°
- D15°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 28° and coldest in February at 13°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Giovinazzo sits on the Adriatic twenty kilometers northwest of Bari, between Molfetta and the Bari coastal belt. The Romans called it Natolium, fortifying the site under Trajan in 102 AD on what may be the older Peucetian settlement of Netium. The Norman cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was built between 1125 and 1180 in the Puglian Romanesque style and consecrated in 1283; it still holds the Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Corsignano, the patron, celebrated through August.
The medieval centro storico runs in narrow stone lanes around the harbor, where the small fishing fleet still ties up below the sea wall. Five kilometers inland, the Dolmen di San Silvestro is a Bronze Age funerary chamber from around 1500 BC, set in a grove of olive and carob, the agro that makes Giovinazzo a Città dell'Olio. The town hosts one of the few elite roller hockey clubs in Italy.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 19 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h 6 min away.
By car from the center of Bari 31 min, Lecce 2 h 20 min or Salerno 3 h 5 min.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
Coming from Bari?
Coming by train into Bari Centrale? Giovinazzo is about 32 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Bari airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Norman cathedral of 1125-1180 in Puglian Romanesque, consecrated in 1283, with the Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Corsignano above the main altar.
Centro storico
Medieval old town in narrow stone lanes wrapping the small port, walled on the seaward side and rebuilt after Norman reconquest in the eleventh century.
Dolmen di San Silvestro
Bronze Age funerary dolmen from around 1500 BC, set on a Murgia terrace among olive and carob trees five kilometers inland from town.
Chiesa di San Domenico
Sixteenth-century Dominican church on the main piazza, redone in Baroque style in the eighteenth century, with a painted wooden ceiling.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Ragno d'Oro Caffè dal 1856Bistrot
Ragno d'Oro Caffè dal 1856 carries two Gambero Rosso tables.
Toruccio Terrazza AdriaticaRistorante
A Gambero Rosso listing, at Toruccio Terrazza Adriatica.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Giovinazzo meets both of our rules for a small town.
- 19,156 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Molfetta, a city of 57,229, is 20 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
- A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the center.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 19,156, down 5.5% since 2015
- Nearest city Molfetta, 20 min drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest national health service hospital Molfetta, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,400 to €1,850 per m² to buy, €5.10 to €6.80 per m² a month to rent
Weighing a move here? See the moving year.
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 100% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Bari airport (BRI), 19 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bari, 31 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Albania, Georgia and Romania, against 9% across Italy. 39 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France, the United Kingdom and the United States. There are 246 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 23% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Bari province ranks 67th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Molfetta, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Bari, 17 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Bari, 17 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 357 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 122 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax, with nothing due on income under €7,500. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Puglia spends about €1,500 a month, €440 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €545 a year for water, on the Puglia average. In Bari, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.21, a meal in a pizzeria €11.13 and a man's haircut €14.53.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone C, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 15 to March 31, up to 10 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, under 1% in a high or medium one. Under 1% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
NORMAN CATHEDRAL
Santa Maria Assunta, built 1125-1180 by the Normans, holds the Byzantine Madonna of Corsignano icon and is the town's patronal seat.
OLIVE OIL
Città dell'Olio with one of the largest olive-growing agri in the Metropolitan City of Bari, anchoring small frantoi across the countryside.
DOLMEN SAN SILVESTRO
Bronze Age megalithic tomb from roughly 1500 BC, the only intact dolmen in this stretch of the Murgia coastal terrace.
Common questions
- What is Giovinazzo known for?
- Giovinazzo is an Adriatic fishing port twenty kilometers northwest of Bari, with a Norman cathedral and a Bronze Age dolmen in the agro inland.
- Where is Giovinazzo?
- Giovinazzo is a comune in the province of Bari, in Puglia, at 7 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Giovinazzo?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bari (BRI), about 19 min by car.
- Can you get to Giovinazzo without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Bari to Giovinazzo?
- About 31 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Giovinazzo?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Giovinazzo?
- Trinitapoli, Bisceglie and Grottammare.
- How many people live in Giovinazzo?
- 19,156 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Giovinazzo a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Giovinazzo is a small town that meets both of our rules. The nearest city, Molfetta, is 20 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Molfetta, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 100% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 7 m
- Population: 19,156
- Surface area: 44.3 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Giovinazzo appears in
- The best coastal towns you can reach by train within 90 minutes of BariNear Baricoastalby trainwithin 90 min6 towns · smallest 17,353 residents · closest 31 min away
- The best olive oil towns that eat well within 90 minutes of BariNear Bariolive oilwithin 90 mineats well6 towns · smallest 19,156 residents · closest 31 min away
- The best towns that eat well in the province of BariBari provinceeats well6 towns · smallest 10,102 residents
- The best towns you can reach by train that eat well within 90 minutes of BariNear Bariby trainwithin 90 mineats well9 towns · smallest 17,353 residents · closest 31 min away
- 10 small towns in Italy where everyday life is a walkLiguriaeveryday life on foot5,000 to 20,000 people10 towns · smallest 5,050 residents
- The best olive oil towns in the province of BariBari provinceolive oil10 towns · smallest 5,908 residents
Similar
Towns like Giovinazzo
What all six share with Giovinazzo: over 10,000 people · near sea level
Trinitapoli
Province: Barletta-Andria-Trani
both on the Adriatic coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Bisceglie
Province: Barletta-Andria-Trani
both on the Adriatic coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Grottammare
Province: Ascoli Piceno
both on the Adriatic coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Cesenatico
Province: Forlì-Cesena
both on the Adriatic coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Giulianova
Province: Teramo
both on the Adriatic coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Melendugno
Province: Lecce
2 h 47 min apart by road
The letter
Read a sample letter
Chioggia | Everyone is wrong about this town
It’s not an alternative to Venice
Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.