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.<br><br>

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

... 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. <br><br>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.<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.

... 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 ...

... district. Once we finally got settled in, we met a girl named Cynthia from Peru whom we traveled around with for the night. She had been in town for a few days, so she immediately took us to the Colisseum to see it lit up at night! WOW! Incredible site, but what was even more incredible was the DINNER (plus wine and desserts) we had at the Royal Roma Cafe RIGHT across the street from the Colisseum. We literally celebrated our arrival 75 yds from this wonder ...

... and then threw our things into our bags and walked to the dock to meet our Nova boat shuttle to Dubrovnik. The journey ahead of us was going to be LONG and here is what we will be doing for the next few days, en route to Greece: --6:45pm to 7:15pm - boat shuttle from Kolocep to Dubrovnik -- 9:00pm boarding of the Jadrolinija ferry to Bari, Italy, departure 11pm (yes, we dread going BACK to Bari but we had absolutely no choice on this route. Apparently there is some political issue ...

... typical Italian you see in movies. Greased-back hair, hairy chest w/ bling hanging out of his open shirt, sleeves rolled up, chewing on a cigarette ... I know that I shouldn't laugh as there's also all types of stereo-types of Chinese people, but this guy was almost like something out of "The Simpsons"! As the bus got close to Naples Guiseppe pointed out Vesuvius. I asked him if this was the reason for the poor air quality (smelled almost like a campfire at ...