On Tuesday, the pasta makers of Bari Vecchia went on strike: no orecchiette on the pastry boards next to the Arco Basso - one of the most recognizable alleys that leads from the ancient village to the Swabian Castle - just a handful of flour, a loom, and a protest sign. Among the surprised faces of thousands of tourists, another dispute erupted in the Apulian city between pasta artisans and the Municipality, which last week fined them for illegal occupancy of public land and unauthorized sale of non-fresh products. The issue is not the stands set up in the labyrinth of alleyways, but what’s on them: often, though not always, instead of handcrafted orecchiette, industrial ones are offered to naive tourists, even in the colors of the national flag: white, red, and green. In order to address a problem that has persisted since the city's mass tourism boom, the Municipality of Bari has implemented food safety classes. "A class that we don't need", the women of Bari Vecchia are now complaining. However, the Municipality's battle against the sale of industrial orecchiette continues.