Hotel Club Il Baricentro

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 ...

... of the book are where the voice shifts over to the 3 other main characters in the form of their journals and the suspect's police confession, but even those are whiny and impossible to relate to. I think it's the non-objective first person's voice just really unsuited for the noir style, with lines like:
"I think my sister is a monster, not a human being. Do you find that outrageous? Hmm..."

You ...

... a program where they would give away properties in the Sassi if you would renovate them and make them “livable” while maintaining the historic integrity and appearance of the area.

Today nearly 50% of the Sassi buildings have been renovated and are now occupied. You can still wander the streets of the remaining abandoned area and see just how horrible the living conditions must have been. The area is so primitive that is was used as the setting for many ...

... 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 ...

... in a humid cave which so recently housed entire families, and gazing across the ravine to opposite cliffs where shepherds sheltered for millennia, we got a sense of how hard life was here for so many. Stepping through the courtyards, ancient wine cellars and narrow streets, however, you do also get a strong sense of the communities which survived and flourished against the odds.

Tiny ...

The most surprising thing I found before leaving England was that no one even know where Basilicata was! Even friends who thought they knew Italy well weren't aware of Basilicata as its not very well known. On the plane from Stansted, most of the English people we spoke were going on holiday to visit family or friends and most were staying in Puglia, not Basilicata.


If you're planning to visit Basilicata, you will defintely ...

... crossing. 5.30pm comes and I drive to the embarkation point, show my ticket and get put straight back in the car park, wait I am told, we will call you. So I get out of the car a get a free ringside seat to a complete circus. All afternoon there has been little activity just a bunch of trucks arriving to be parked up waiting for the evening sailing. Come 5pm all hell broke lose, there are 2 boats to Greece, one for Patras and mine a 2 stop ferry, first stop ...

... great ease, and there was only one other guy staying in there. So being the nice 'padna' that I am, I let ole Greg in to the dorimitory to sleep in a bed. Great times. But before we crashed, we read a little, watched some of the classic Robin Hood movie in the kid's play section (remember that movie?- the one where Robin was a fox and King John was a lion, etc??), and hung out with some girls we met from the Naval Academy. We were awoken the next morning ...

... for our quarters and expected the mall-like floor plan..."Disco"..."Swimming Pool!"..."Desma, this boat has a swimming pool!! And a sundeck!! And And And." We grabbed a shower and relaxed poolside for 2 hours before the ship even left. It was a real treat. We had 12 hours to kill in Bari before our third and final overnight ferry would put us in Dubrovnik. So we took the time to stroll through this port town with no real expectations. Bari ...

... was, if not, that is what we did for approx 14 hours to get to Italy! But once we were there, we ordered cappuccinos (or Tara might very well have fallen off the earth), ordering in Turkish? No! Greek? No! Italian? Ah yes... we can barely speak English at this point! The port city did have a sweet castle, a few cute streets, a cathedral or two and good food, just a teaser of Italy we would soon come to realize! Off to Croatia, finally!