Hotel Costa 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 ...

... from Japanese to English. Or perhaps it's just that the elements with which I could relate - growing up under an environment of intense academic competition with both peers and siblings - simply accentuated those with which I couldn't - thinking said sibling soulless, incest, pedophilia, parental abandonment, grandparental dementia. Plus the elite-schoolgirl-turned-prostitute motif has been done to death.<br ...

So we get up, get ready, have the usual buffet breakfast that has ceased to be a wonder and a pig out fest. We loaded towards Pompeii and settled in for what we thought would be a 45min drive, try more like 20mins later! Suddenly we were at Pompeii, meeting Enzo again and getting wired for sound so we could hear him. It was pretty hot, but still early..and we went into Pompeii via the Gladiator training ground..past there we went to ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.<br>We passed very few cars on the journey to Matera, which was actually rather refreshing having spent last summer trying to get away from the over-crowded tourist resorts.<br><br>As the road headed up to the mountains, we passed ancient hilltop towns and villages clinging to rocky limestone plateaus. Often seeming more Greek than ...

... are only a small number of sleeping cabins that have to be booked way in advance and cost a lot of money. So like a lot of other people our ticket was "deck space". Meaning we could find a piece of floor somewhere and sleep. It turned out to be a pretty uncomfortable nights rest tossing and turning with about 200 other people all crammed into every nook and cranny of the boat.<br>

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.

... see one of the vehicle oracles in my life I'll check it out. Carrefour comes up with the goods. Pharmacy and a few essentials. I head to another quiet corner in their carpark and light up the stove for a tasty treat of quick rissotto. A couple of Italian drivers were so taken aback by the spectacle that they nearly came to grief (don't stare at crazy English people making a roadside lunch, it's dangerous). I arrive at the port in good time to get the error on my ...

... far too busy for him, bit too busy for us too but we still had a little stroll and a delicious icecream from a gelateria. We got up at bout 6 and moved the van, took advantage of being up early to have a walk around. It was so quiet. We took pictures of the sights without hundreds of other bodies in the way J Such a different place to the night before. A night in another hilltop fort town - Ostuni. Where the Italian's were all out watching the football semi final on a big screen in the ...

... for, was a filthy shithole (see attached photo of bathroom). It was so bad that Michelle went back to the reception desk and requested another room. The upgrade was a little better, but definitely still not worth the price we paid. Once we set foot in Bari we felt much better. The impression we had was that this port town was going to be sketchy and desolate. It turned out to be pretty nice. We wandered around the old town district, stopped in a cafe for some ...

Bari 5 September 2005 - Monday In Bari we docked at about 14:00, but didn't venture into the city as was still on my lonesome waiting for my cabin mates, who finally pitched up but with NO LUGGAGE!!! Such bad luck, they'd been ...