From coast to coast

We were very sorry to have had such a short time in Croatia and are already plotting our return.  However, Italy beckoned, so on we went, catching the overnight ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari. 

We walked down here and had a swim.  Thank goodness for beach shoes!

View while waiting for the ferry to depart.

We had booked a cabin on the ferry in the hope of sleeping most of the way.  More a cubicle than a cabin, there was only room for one of us to stand up at a time and the narrow bunks certainly didn’t allow sharing.  Included with our tickets was breakfast.  I just love a good hotel breakfast, unfortunately this one wasn’t.  Even the bread was stale (possibly the slices left over from dinner the night before?).  Disembarking around 8am we cleared customs and went to the station to leave our luggage so we could explore the town before journeying on.

We tried catching a bus to the old town but it seems our language skills weren’t up to scratch and we’d been told any bus except number 12.  Number 12 went a long way down the coast and back and it was quite interesting to see the suburban houses and caravan parks (or that is Di’s explanation, me I think the disinformation guy was having a lend of us – Ed). More disturbing, away from the tourist areas, was the roadside prostitution/ slavery which I have read is apparently a huge problem, with young women from the former communist bloc countries being tricked into coming for what they think is going to be legitimate work and having their passport withheld.


On our eventual return to Bari Centrale we decided to walk into the old town where there were several points of interest - the cathederal (closed for lunch), the castle (mostly closed for rennovations) and we did manage the third - the Basilica of Saint Nicholas.  We went down to the crypt where I thought the bones looked decidedly unhygienic and didn’t join the queue to kiss them!  Our next stop was lunch in a typical trattoria.  Missing the generous serves of vegetables I’m accustomed to, I ordered a zucchini salad.  And that’s just what I got... a large plate raw zucchini, liberally dressed with lemon and olive oil.  I also thought I ordered a medium sized glass of wine but got a medium sized carafe!  Oh well, I only had to manage to get on the next train….

Not Santa's bones but other looted relics from the time of the First Crusade.

I'd also like to point out that I'm not the only one who sometimes has an unexpected meal.  The next meal out Matt ordered an Americano burger - and a what he got was a very tasty rissole with chips on the side.  No bun, a not really a salad with no onion or tomato, not even any tomato sauce.

The afternoon saw us on the train to Taranto where we planned to visit the castle (surprise!).  The castle is still in use as a naval base but they do run tours over a small part and show off their archaeological discoveries.  There was lots of commentary, most of which we didn’t understand.  Luckily the rooms we visited had translations in English, German, and French pinned to the walls so while we missed what the crowd was laughing at we did get the important historical information!

An evening promenade alone the waterfront meant wandering past what we initially thought were food trucks.  Nope, they were bar trucks.  The one we stopped at specialised in citrus based drinks which were very refreshing in the heat.

Thwarted in our plan to eat early and often we had to wait for the restaurants to open.  We thought we had selected a very unpopular place when we entered and were the only patrons.  Not at all, it was nearly full when we left – we were just unfashionably early in our dining hour (it was nearly 9pm when we sat down).  Still, we were happy to have some familiar food.

Oh sushi, how I adore you.

Dinners out also meant I finally had an opportunity to show off my Croatian coral from Korcula – thanks Fay and Bru, I bought the necklace and earrings with some of my birthday money.

I really need to get photoshop so I can fix my ruddy features!

The place I most enjoyed visiting in Taranto was the museum of antiquities.  Taranto has a long history and was first mentioned in recorded history as a Spartan colony where illegitimate offspring were sent.  Its roots are even older with the museum having objects on display going back to humanities earliest days.    We lingered until closing time and were eventually escorted out by one of the lovely staff who took the time to show us some of her favourite pieces on the way.

Our final town before Sicily was Reggio de Calabria where I picked our apartment purely because it offered a washing machine!  As I wrote this we were en route there -  on a train travelling south, on a narrow stretch of coast before the mountains begin.  The views were astonishing.

Sorry Mum and Dad, I know one of your favourite bronzes ever is in the museum at Reggio but our day was entirely taken up with doing nothing except a bit of housekeeping!  We didn't get there.  We did watch the sun set over Sicily though as we planned our trip to the Aeolian Islands.  Next stop Lipari (pronounced like Slippery).