Hotel Clio Bari

... shouldn't have taken the first agent's word for it. Seemed to be ships sailing at all hours - must surely have been one with space on it overnight? Definitely the only way to do this route.However, we get by: but I wouldn't recommend Ventourist line: cheap, for sure; but tacky -very, very tacky!Another night in an anonymous port.<br><br>

... finished Homicide. The pickings were slim - basically either this or some hokey murder mystery featuring Oscar Wilde as the protagonist sleuth. The latter sounded tacky and I recall ads on the tube for Kirino's other book, Out, so I went with Grotesque.<br><br>Perhaps I should have been clued in by the fact that only Out, not Grotesque was actively promoted in London. Perhaps it loses impact and nuances in ...

... It was edible, if not a bit onthe lukewarm side. We scoffed down food with Calvin and chatted. After dinner we went back to "our seats" and gathered a group to play Phase 10, including Calvin. The game was good fun, other people were playing Guess Who and Barbie Uno. we wrapped it up midnight ish..and headed to bed. Cory came first, Calvin last..ah well.. the luck of the game. No alarm and giving breakfast a miss tomorrow..sleep in!<br>

... hire a car! We had decided to travel around the region rather than staying in one place, so we could really get a feel for what it was like. The further we drove from Bari and the Puglia border, the higher we rose, the wilder and more beautiful the scenery became. Basilicata is the most mountainous as well as the least known region of southern Italy. We found out before we came that tourism is not big in Basilicata, although Italians ...

... 15 hour boat ride.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)<br><br>Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" &#8211; meaning &#8220;dome&#8221;. See the pictures of the wee houses.<br><br>We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus &#8211; meaning &#8220;beautiful view&#8221;. It was beautiful.

... I sacrificed the car to the kerb, big crunch and shudder, I'm thinking the worse and waiting for my rear drivers side tyre to give up the will to live. Eventually I have the chance to inspect and discover the tyre and in fact the entire alloy rim with no damage. Taking a peek under the car I discover that the sill has taken a bit of a battering and is now a slightly different specification than original, I don't think it warrants insurance work but as soon as ...

... was a little sea breeze. Saw a big red just off full moon rising over the sea for solstice night..magical. We went into Lecce - a city with amazing architecture, lots of gargoyle type things. We got there early evening and had a guy tell us he'd keep an eye on the van - he'd shown us a parking space in the carpark and hovered around waiting for a tip so we gave him a &euro;. The only trouble was it was in a market so we had to move by 7 am. We went and had a pizza, scruff didn't like it ...

... morning we ferried out to Corfu, about 36 hours after leaving Montenegro. He says: Yes, I can finally say I've been to Italy. Many people will tell me that an afternoon in Bari doesn't qualify as having been to Italy, but they're just jealous of my good looks. We arrived in Italy on an overnight ferry from the Montenegran town of Bar (that's right, we went from Bar to Bari). The ferry ride was a little disappointing. The cabin, which we had paid a (relatively) large ...

... I caught a bus to the port with a girl I met at the bus stop, she was also going to Dubrovnik. At the port we got our tickets and were told to wait and we waited. The ferry was suppose to leave at midnight. That wasn't going to happen. There were no announcements to say that it was late or to let us know what was going on. If anyone asked the ferry line desk whats going on, they were told to sit and wait.