Hotel Villa dei Pini 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.

... the word), I was pleasantly surprised to find I like his pleasantly charming style.

I always found the idea of English identity curiously muted, what with its history of Empire juxtaposed, my numerous Indian and Bangla friends, the legal incorporation but cultural separation from the Welsh, Scots, and Northern Irish, its role in American history as the guys we beat up for independence and then rescued from ...

... paper doesn't go down the toilet, it goes in the bin). After a second opinion from another person, I marched down to reception and demanded the bin be changed. Someone came immediately and changed it, not with good grace I may add. This helped straight away, but the stink was still not great.
We went for a walk and wandered the boat, alot of the chairs were taken due to people having no cabins and trying to find a good place to ...

... 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.

... smile sweetly, bury my head in my book and ignore. After a while I lay down the gauntlet, leave my bag with book and blanket on my claimed seat and set off for food. I'm absent for at least half an hour and expect to come back to a trespasser in my seat, amazingly enough, my bag is there and my seat unoccupied. I then fall asleep, hoping to while away several hours of the crossing unconscious. I wake at 10pm, the boat is shuddering and I wonder where we are ...

Our cruise to Greece, Croatia, and back to Italy began today, so we did a few errands in the morning, including withdrawing Euros from an ATM, finding a pharmacy to purchase some OTC meds (that's right...Jody started getting sick on the way to Europe), and buying a shirt for David. Then we took a taxi to the port. There, we waited to check in with our cruise line, who had things very well ...

... they had and had 2 small suitcases packed with literally all they owned, and were finding their "dream" job as they work together on yachting jobs. Interesting couple and fun to chat with. We had told them that this ferry ride was a cinch and before they knew it they would be in Bari and not even realize they had been on the water! HaHa! It was not as if we had lied to poor John and Delysa but it just happened that this was one of only a couple of the worst voyages all year ...

... s like breathing cigarette smoke. Got to the hostel - nothing special. At least there is free internet. Dropped off my stuff and went off to sample the famous Napoli pizza. For once, I found something that lived up to its hype. I splurged on the eight flavoured pizza. Like a celestial pinwheel of heavenly goodness ... little strands of dough divided it into eight sections. Segregated ... yet integrated ... like our planet Earth. Before eating I had a moment of ...