Hotel Zodiacus 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 ...

... the present day Commonwealth, aloof status from the rest of the European Union. My new passport sums it up perfectly: "European Union: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"<br><br>It's compounded for someone whose frame of reference for England is London, which is like trying to suss out Italy based on the Vatican. It's an established fact that there no English people living in central ...

... 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 ...

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. <br><br>If you're planning to visit Basilicata, you will defintely need ...

... 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.

... we are is Bari, we were due to leave at 7pm, OMG 3 hours late and at least a 10 hour crossing, I'm almost ready to jump overboard. Soon after the boat leaves, I spent some of the night asleep, waking periodically, having awful dreams and generally hurting in places I forgot existed. There was all sorts of stuff going on all night, family rows, lights on, lights off, tv on, tv off, and an assortment of human noises and smells that should really only happen in private.

... the modern world. Oh, and to top things off, the tuneage at this quaint little Italian restaurant was not 'L'Amore' or some other Italian music, but their version of Smooth Operator... Yes, Greg and I died laughing. We wrapped up the evening around midnight as we came back to the hostel to meet our new friends and hear stories about their adventures in Rome. We couldn't wait to get some rest and start early on our own paths around this ancient capital of the world!

... prohibits tourists from traveling a direct route, by ferry, from Croatia to Greece.) Let us tell you about our horrible ferry journey across the Adriatic Sea. So ironically we got on board and were assigned the exact same room we had on our way TO Croatia, room 302. While waiting for the boarding we met up with a couple from Tulsa, OK (John is a yacht skipper and Delysa a yacht chef) and they were on their way across Europe to "find the perfect yachting job". They had basically sold ...

... Nope - it's industrial pollution! I have never seen pollution like this before ... compared to this, even Los Angeles air is like refreshing alpine. Naples is a dump. The hostel is in a terrible area near the train station. But I must admit that I knew this beforehand - I thought it would be convenient as a base for day trips. The area is like a war zone - trash everywhere and it's pretty scary crossing the streets. Total culture shock! My lungs hurt ...