Strada Arco Basso, commonly known as Via delle Orecchiette or Strada delle Orecchiette, is a lane in Bari Vecchia where local women still sit outside their front doors making orecchiette — the ear-shaped pasta that is the signature dish of Puglia — just as they always have. The women work at astonishing speed, rolling and cutting small pieces of dough into the characteristic shape with a blunt knife in a single fluid motion that takes decades to perfect.
The pasta is sold fresh by the bag, usually still warm. You can watch the process for as long as you like and buy directly from the makers. This is not a staged tourist attraction — these are working households supplementing their income — and the scale of production is genuine. Come in the morning when activity is at its peak and the pasta is freshest.