Bari

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Saturday, 22nd November, 2008

Plan for today, Acireale to Cosenza.

The wind really got up last night and things were banging and clattering around the Hotel.

We were both awake early, so got up and started sorting ourselves out, as we have a long day.

Pat went down to breakfast and then we paid our bill at reception and left the Hotel just before nine o'clock.

We went for the Autostrada up to Messina, which was very light with traffic. The winds got stronger as we approached Messina, although the sun was shining and the temperature on the car said 22°C.

We left the Autostrada on the last exit for Messina, the signposting for the ferries is very poor. The signs got better and we headed through some strange parts of town and eventually ended up at Bluvia Ferries. The ticket office was in a cafeteria and cost €23.00. This one was for Villa San Giovanni. The guy said it would be about half an hour before sailing.

Because of the wind and poor weather, I wondered whether the ferries would have any problems sailing, but we loaded more or less straight away, and the ramp came up, within five minutes and we were off.

The ferry was a few years old. The inside reminded me of the Free Enterprise IV, from many years ago, one Townsend Thoresen vessels.

The sailing across was pretty stable considering and we crossed the Strait, and were off in what seemed no time at all.

We were in a different part of the port from when we went over, but followed the Autostrada signs, and got out of Villa San Giovanni, with no difficulty.

Our next stop was Cosenza, approximately 110 miles.

The first part of our drive was really awful. The stormy windy weather was set in here and the Autostrada goes around the mountains on a viaduct, sometimes on legs that are really tall to cope with the geography, and you drive through the clouds. So visibility was low and the rain lashing down didn't help. Pat was driving today, and we had plenty of time, so a steady and cautious drive was in order.

We stopped for a coffee and doughnut break at one of the service areas.

It got a little better as we approached Cosenza, as we were inland a bit, but it was still drizzling.

We came off the Autostrada and used the satnav to find our destination, which was the Holiday Inn, Cosenza.

It wasn't far and we went straight to it. It was about half one, and check-in is usually from two, but as it was raining and we had nothing better to do, so we went in and they gave us the room.

Parking was around the corner, so we unloaded a few things and took then up to the room. We had booked a superior king size, and the room is really great. The Hotel is what we would have expected, and up to a good standard.

We popped back down to the car and drove around the corner to a secure Holiday Inn underground parking area.

On returning to the Hotel, I forced Pat into the bar, and made her have a Gin & Tonic, she accepted without too much complaining. The drink was truly deserved, after driving in horrible conditions.

Our guide book said that the town has a fine medieaval centre and had the weather been better, we probably would have taken a look. We had only come here as a weigh point, so there wasn't anything we needed or had to see, so we just relaxed in the room for the afternoon.

Again, because of the weather, we took the easy option and ate in the Hotel restaurant.

The restaurant was staffed with people who had a little English, which made our life easier in ordering, but we only have a rough idea of what we were getting. We both had a starter, I ordered a soup, and Pat had the fresh pasta, with tomato's and courgettes . My soup turned up with mussel's in it, so I passed these over to Pat. as she likes them. The soup was flagelot beans and fine without the mussel's. I ordered something which we made out to be chickens and prawn on the menu and when it turned up was chicken rolled up with prawns stuffed in the centre, with vegetables and was very tasty. Pat ordered a steak, which when it turned was a well presented portion of meat, served with vegetables.

No desserts, but a couple of cappuccino's to finish what was a splendid meal.

The Hotel had free internet access, and we tried to get access, but it didn't work for us. So off we went to bed.

The wind seems to have dropped and no rain, so hopefully a better day tomorrow.

Sunday, 23rd November, 2008.

A poor night's sleep due to a car alarm in the vicinity going off at intervals through the night.

Very gloomy, low cloud cover, although not raining. We are in a valley, so with any luck, we will drive into better weather later.

Plan for today, Cosenza to Bari.

To drive to Bari you need to be driving from somewhere other than the direction we are coming from.

In other words Bari has good roads to it from the North down. We are heading from the South up and the motorway doesn't go that way.

This is another reason we broke the journey at Cosenza, because although there are roads, they don't look that good and we don't know how long it is going to take us.

At one stage the route we have planned takes us along the “instep” of Italy, and then joins up with the bottom of a motorway on the east coast and then North for a while to Bari.

Pat went down for breakfast and we then went down and sorted the bill out. We were on the road just after ten o'clock.

It was raining a little and the temperature was hovering between 7° and 10°C.

Our forebodings about the roads turned out to be false. We headed up the A3 Autostrada away from Cosenza, and then headed east. Although the roads were lesser roads on the maps, I have to say that for a lot of the time they were better than a lot of the Autostrada's we have travelled on recently.

The journey was a pretty good and the traffic was very light. I phoned my parents along the way and they advised that it was snowing back to home. We thought the weather wasn't so good here, but when it's even worse at home, it does make you feel better.

We were due to arrive into Bari at about two o'clock. The rain had stopped so we decided to head for the port and see what we could find out about our crossing.

If nothing else, we may find out were to go and if possible buy a ticket if anywhere was open.

We followed the signs and of course it took us all over the place, eventually we came to the port and a terminal. Turned out it was the one for Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. So we moved on to the next one.

The terminal was open and active because there was a sailing today at 1500, but there was the one we wanted at 2000 hours Monday.

The receptionist said we should come back tomorrow to buy our ticket and check-in was about 1800. She said there was room on the ferry.

So we had achieved something and we now knew where to go.

We then headed off to find the Hotel, a Best Western. It didn't have an address, but gave coordinates and a road and kilometer indicator. The satnav told us the coordinates were miles away, but through Pat's excellent map reading and directions, we found the road and followed it to the correct kilometre indicator. Once we were in the area, we were able to spot it anyway. After a short bit of fun, trying to get off the dual carriageway and across a flyover, we managed to get to it.

Our reservation was found and we went up to the room. The Hotel is OK, not as nice as last night's Holiday Inn, but the restaurant is open tonight, so all is good.

After settling into the room, we popped down to the bar, for a quick one. They had Gin, so Pat was happy.

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Photos

Mt Etna
Lava flow covering a house

Mt Etna
A beautiful sky

Agropolis Apartment
Our morning spot to catch the sun

Mt Vesuvius
Pat at the top, by the crater

Mt Vesuvius
The view down

Capri
An example of one of it's streets

Pompei
One of the plaster cast imprints of a body covered by the eruption

Pompei
One of the many streets

Agropolis Apartment
One of te typical sunset views from the apartment

Paestum
One of the three standing temples on the site