Fortuna Hotel Ancona

... in Italy. I only got a tiny taste for the culture. I&#8217;ve seen almost none of the interesting landscape or met any curious people. And there&#8217;s so many great foods I didn&#8217;t get to try! So tonight we&#8217;re going out for a last supper. I am going to eat pasta in Italy! I don&#8217;t care how stereotypical that is. <br><br>All I can say is I hope Greece is a might bit warmer so we can get back on track with this travel. And I ...

... on the other. I found myself reading the Italian, pronoucing the words carefully in my head like they are babies that need to be craddled. Then I would realize I had no idea what I just read, and would, again, redirect my attentions to the appropriate side of the page. Werid no?<br><br>Italy never ceases to amase me, but there are characteristics that I don't particulary like. I can understand why this land, this ...

... overtakes you on bends and also crosses onto your side of the road going around the sharp bends on steep mountain roads.. including massive trucks. It was enough to keep anyone awake. We were heading for Elba but it seemed like a long drive. Tricked myself though but first aiming for Lake Tramiseno, then siena and then before we knew it we were at Piombino and about to board the ferry to Elba Island...<br>

... The food looked a bit average but we ate it anyways. Dan had a nice mussel saganaki tomato soup/stew thing and I had calamari. Calamari that had both the little squiddy bits and white fleshy bits in nice batter with chips. It was edible but not fantastic..we had a Greek salad with it..as it is the thing to do in greece. The wind was very windy, taking table umbrellas with it..the water looked lovely though and we went for a walk with an ice cream ...

Off to the beach today, that is pretty much all there is to do in Ancona. Beautiful day though. 30min bus ride to get to the beach. The water was amazing, bright blue with white pebbles.<br><br>Got a little burnt! Everyone at the beach was so tanned!!!! even the babies!!!

... vista of lumpy and spiky territory. Getting towards level ground again, we came down towards the dual carriageway at Bagni di Romagna and were relieved to spot a petrol station. It was only self-service and, though we were sure it took notes, we weren't quite sure how to operate it. Therefore, Paul ventured into the attached cafe and - in his words - "bowed" at the girl inside, informed her (in Italian!) that he didn't speak Italian, and ...

May24th<br><br>We boarded the huge car ferry and found aboard heaps of backpackers dossing on the deck just like i did 23 years ago and the mobile homes actually could be accessed on a outside deck so the campers slept in the them. We opted to crash in the saloon on the chairs as it was much cheaper. The ferry was well equipped with bars and restaurants and wifi!!! So Wayne ...

... of the caravan against a huge branch. Result: There is a breach in the carrozzeria and tomorrow I gotta go find a carrozziere. Today up to a beautiful theatre/house around the mountains of L'Aquila with Annamaria, studying and smoking in the morning. I'll be here some days to fix the caravan and cut my hair. Tomorrow I'll post pictures.

... but I've probably met a lot more people then if i was with other people. Anyway, right now I'm about to head off to Croatia, on an overnight ferry - we'll see how much sleep I get, as I could only afford a seat on the deck of the boat (prices for a cabin would have been around 200 Euro!) nice hearing from ya guys every now and then when I check in ciao Rob