Alberghi Hotel de Rossi Bari

As it turns out, filling that day wasn't so much of a problem.... we tootled out of town, found a beach, wandered about & looked at the boats; tootled back, found somewhere to eat, had a chat with a few Brits and - hey presto! - before you knew it, time for bed! But the one on board was a bit more of a challenge... all 13 hours of it! BIG ...

... be met with a stammered "erm, where do your parents live?" which, if I were inclined to take the ****, merits "Los Angeles" with a look of scorn as they fumble to figure out whether I'm Chinese or Japanese (nobody ever guesses Korean).

It's getting really weird now that I've left town, having come to considering myself a Korean-American Londoner (not English, British, or god forbid European), and the stock ...

... down for the night. Some people were sleeping on the deck. There was a pool, which people were using already and a Ala carte restaurant and a Self service one. Dan and I got a drink and claimed a seating area and a few other found us until we had 8 chairs or so. We were almost too afraid to get up in fear of losing them! We went in shifts to have dinner at the self service restaurant. We went around 7.30pm and had tortelli ...

... typically Italian, it was little surprise to find that this was once part of ancient Magna Graecia; in fact you are more likely to stumble upon Greek temples than you are Roman ruins. Known in Italy as a land of myth and fable, this little region was clearly full of surprises.

Whenever I think back to the first day in Basilicata, images of mountains, beautiful scenery and sunny skies fill my thoughts - a lovely start to the holiday!

... 15 hour boat ride.

We boarded the ferry and set off. Of course on our grocery run we bought some beer and wine, so we began the drinking on the top deck. After a while we had quite the crew: the Australian couple, the 3 Spokane guys, and then 4 Irish lads. We stayed up late drinking and talking under the stars...it was pretty cool.

Then we went to bed. On this ferry ...

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... Day was cloudy and slight wind, not much happening oh but when we arrived there was a marathon race in progress and there were a few fruit & veg markets also... huge strawberries yum, plus fresh fish, shell fish and octopus I think. Emergency Drill again at 3.30pm today oh joy. Then off to Katakolon Greece due to arrive all going to schedule at 8am Monday. Deb

... company. The woman at the ticket office spoke perfect English, in addition to probably 10 other languages, so we quickly grabbed our tickets and ran to dock number 1, flashing our passports when needed to men in uniform. On the boat, we sat out on the deck in some chairs and watched the glow of Bari's lights disappear into the night. Now we're spreading out our sheet on the open deck, so I'm off to pass out in the middle of the Adriatic Sea under the stars. Toodles, from the Adriatic Sea.

(Jim) We arrived in Bari yesterday evening after a pretty long and tiring train ride. The train was beautiful, though. There is a significant variation in quality in European trains, from the Warsaw Pact-era sleeper car we took from Krakow to Prague, to the gleaming intercity trains of the Deutsche Bahn and French intercity trains. This train was equal to the nicest we've experienced. I was in Bari ...

... back with some americans who felt the trip was very rough (not Bass Strait). I did check where the life jackets where though. Today I put my trust in Paul and Tom(GPS) and travelled the Amalfi coast. I had read where you need a change of underwear to travel this road so was a little anxious. Soon forgot about what I had read as the views where stunning. Need a great head for heights though and I couldnt count the times I breathed in hoping the ...