Italy 114 - Ancona /Cugnasco to Bologna /the ladies of the white chairs/hogging the middle lane/Camping Hotel Bologna

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We didn’t sleep too well last night . We had set our alarm on our mobile phone to wake us up. In the night it started to beep. Every few minutes it beeped making sleep impossible. In the dark we tried to work out why it beeped . In the end it was switched off. However by that time we had lost the ability to sleep and lay there listening to every sound outside. The assault on our senses left us feeling absolutely shattered.

The roadside Laburnum trees were over 60 feet high in places. Yellow broom bushes clambered up the verges. We saw poppies in the fields - vivid red . The flowers were changing as we headed in a southerly direction for our appointment with a Minoan line ship that would take us to Greece. The petrol stations and aires seem untidy and extremely busy. They do not have the charm of aires in France nor the efficiency of the rasthouse in Switzerland. We stopped for diesel . In Italy you have two choices – the first self service which the Italians avoid like the plague . Touching dirty diesel and dirty pumps is an anaethema to them. They prefer someone else to do it for them and pay a few cents more for the priviledge. They use the servicio pumps. We picked the wrong one! The attendant came out to us with a grimace for a smile . Ok you are not very friendly – fill her up. I offered the Caxton Card . He would not take it . His machine would not work . Cash only. As if I thought to myself and begrudgingly I went through my purse for 120 euros . He knocked the 8 cents off . I refused to thank him , I felt as if he had not offered me any service worth a thankyou.

We rejoined the autovia . Middle lane hoggers – don’t you just love them? All the drivers ignored the slower land and hogged the middle one. If they didn’t hog the middle one they went out into the fast one. They realised they needed to get off the autovia and screeched across into the tiniest of gaps in the middle lane before screeching over again to the lane they should have been in in the first place . Virtually every overhead gantry had a speed camera sign and virtually every Italian ignored the rusting grey boxes on the side of the road .

Our destination was the Camping Hotel Bologna . We had been at least twice before . It is not an ACSI site and the fee to stay was 25 euros . Last time we were here the circus was in town. Pitched up on rough ground it was noisy all night. The run to the site is rougher than a bears bum. If you are fussy you have to close your eyes as rubbish is everywhere. It is an unloved area of the city with some industrial units and spaces where motorhomes seemed to be parked up for the night. We would never park there as it has an unsafe feeling about it . The road leading to the campsite is rough with lumps of concrete left on the side of the verges , a narrow bridge with traffic lights to negotiate under and the white chairs of the prositutes who are waiting for their next customer. I wondered what made the young girl who sat on a rock sell her body to someone she didn’t know. What compelled her to sit there and wait for someone to come along , pick her up and take her. How much did she charge? Did she have regular customers? I felt saddened to think she did this rather than find work of another kind. Was there none she could do? Did she do it for herself or was she part of network with a pimp? My thoughts were going round and round my head and I could never find an answer.

The hotel camping isn’t an hotel. If you took at face value the name you expect something quite different. If you take at face value the area you would run a mile. However once you arrive there are farms with crops in the fields. The laburnum has dropped its petals like confetti on the ground. The farmhouses and houses are neat and tidy. The white stuff which makes the ground look as if covered by snow is flying in the air making folds sneeze. Reception takes my details . We are closed at 9 in the morning he says due to lack of water. That is not a problem as we need to get off early to get down to Ancona by 11. We sit outside and watch the world go by. I put the washing in the washing machine . It is warm enough to dry it by early evening. The swimming pool has not opened yet for the season. We sleep well really . Perhaps we are getting used to being in Suzy finally . Tomorrow our holiday will truly begin.



Ancona – to Igouminitisa – what a wait for a boat . Our cabin/600 lorries /2000 people and horse and chips

We left Bologna early leaving by a different route. A much quicker one to the autovia and one that did not pass the rubbish nor the prositutes. The drive down to Ancona went well. It was a road we had travelled many times before. Past the lovely castle of Gradara . We sailed by the racetrack at Misano. Senegalia – a lovely castle which we must visit in the future . It’s a Knockout was held there many years ago.

Had we followed Snooper we might have ended up in Ancona Centro. The signs for the docks at time contradicted what she was telling us . We followed what we could see rather than what she told us and we ended up on large waiting area where we would pick up our boarding passes. You know what it feels like when you have ordered something on line and you have that sneaking feeling that something will go wrong. Well that is how we were feeling as we parked up and walked towards the terminal building. We sought out the Minoan Lines office . Easy it was the only one open and the only one with queues in front of the two available windows. It was 11.00 . We knew we had time to spare so waiting was in some ways a blessing. The lady who served us was efficient. She took our booking ticket – we crossed our fingers behind our backs and hoped for the best. She typed in numbers , printed off one ticket and stuck it in the front of the paper envelope she held . She checked our passports and punched numbers into the computer and then printed off a second set of three tickets . These were put inside the envelope. They are your return tickets she said . She issued us with another two paper tickets for our cabin . 8196 . Perhaps that was our number we wondered . She told us to take these with us. We went in search of a coffee but facilities were lacking. The bar uninviting and the coffee bar outside only offered what I could brew up myself in Suzy. We sat for a while drinking our coffee in Suzy before walking back to the booking hall. At least 8 ambulances arrived heading for Syria . UK 2 Syria emblazoned on the sides. Humanitarian aid travelling overland from our home to a war destroyed country.

At 12 we got fed up and decided to head for the port. A long and circuitous route out of the boarding pass area towards the town along what must have been the most pot rutted road in Italy. Eventually we came to a barrier where we were stopped by the police . After a few minutes he waved us through to the customs/interrogation area . Passports and tickets checked again. We were free to enter the port. We past the town which looked interesting but everything had been a little too far for us to walk to or at least so we thought. Baroque churches , a fort and wall and a very higgledy piggledy boarding area. We were directed to another car park where we sat for all of ten minutes. This is going well – its half past twelve – we can see the ship and we are being directed to what looks like the back end of the ship. No we must go down another lane, turn round and queue up again. We sit and wait. We watch the lorries come in and being loaded. Fifty of them must have gone by and then the buses arrive. Three of them. Surely it is now 1.00 and they will let us on. After a while we realise that all that is going on are more buses and more lorries heading for Patras the second stop. We are getting off first at Igoumenitsa so will board last . 1.30 We watch the man taking the water hose of the ship. We watch with great interest at the man with a hose spraying something on the brown stains on the paintwork. The brown dissolves before our eyes as if by magic. We watch the man with his white paint covering the scratches on the bow . It is now 2pm and the boat should have sailed. Still the lorries and the buses come. I speak to a guy from Birmingham who is taking a boat to Greece . He tells me it is always like this and we wont get on until last. Just before 2.15 we are beckoned forward . Not far but at least we are on the move. Then comes the awkward bit , up the ramp , wait for the motorhomes in front of us to get to the top of the slope. We go up and then have to reverse in the dark . A manic Italian barking instructions at us. My God it is mayhem. We park up and get out of the dark cavanous depths of the bowels of the ship. We look for the electricity to plug in for Suzy’s fridge. There is none so we give up and walk from deck 5 (thank God we looked or we would never have found the old girl) to reception. Where is 8196. Up a deck to the left . Easier said than done. We found deck 8 but could not find our outside cabin. More by luck than anything else we found it hidden away. A reasonable sized room with two single beds. Big enough for an overnight trip. Fairly quiet and fairly cool. A window large enough to see out of . A desk and two chairs , cupboards, a toilet, wash basin and shower. We were glad we had paid the extra rather than sit on deck in an air line style seat. It seemed quiet. Have I shut Suzy’s windows? I cannot remember . I left mine open a touch whilst we waited . I could not remember if I had shut it. However hard I tried my mind said no then I wondered if I shut it and opened it again when I got inside the boat. I could not remember and there was nothing I could do now . We would not see Suzy until tomorrow morning. Hopefully the sat nag will still be there plus the tags for the telepeage. I wonder if I will sleep tonight thinking of them.

We headed up to deck 8 for some late lunch. No hot drinks, just a selection of salads , overcooked chips and a meat that defied identifying. Chicken I thought first , Too big a leg . More like lamb. Bit stringy – mutton – perhaps the thigh bone was too big and it was horse. We wont be eating there tonight . It was rather a disappointing event. We sat watching the land drift away and we were in sea that mingled so closely to the sky it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. It is going to be a long night .

To break it up slightly we went up to the a la carte restaurant. Fairly small it had about seating for 50 or so people. It was almost full when we called in. We ordered spag bol for me and a veal with chips for Glenn. We hoped for better than lunchtime. The rolls were nice. They were accompanied by something black and olive like , something made from tomatoes and something made from cheese with a rather chilli bite to it. The veal was well done and passable, the chips pretty awful again and my spag bol was too much. Too much pasta , not a lot of anything else. A bit of a disappointment. We waited for the waiter to come to ask if we wanted puddings . He didn’t . We tried to catch his eye. The head waiter was closing the doors and turning folks away . Come back in an hour he said . We thought give us pudding and we will go. Not a fat chance. What about coffee then? Nothing . What about the bill? Eventually we did get it . Not the best of meals. In fact I have to admit that the meal in Restaurant Romantica where we expected little far exceeded the fayre on the Minoan Line boat . So what of experience so far . AFerry came out good getting us our tickets and cabin. They probably took a cut of 50 euros for the priviledge. Perhaps we panicked when we could not book the tickets. If we came again we probably would wait and do it ourselves. We might even try from Venice or Bari instead of Ancona. We hated the loading which seemed very haphazard and wonder how good or bad it will be when we try to get off in the morning. The food was terrible if I am honest and perhaps next time we would not even bother and bring our own. It has been a learning experience and an interesting one at that . You never know what something will be like until you try it. I wonder if our cabin will be the same one on the way back. Perhaps we ought to ask reception before we leave the ship .

Caow Italy see you soon – tomorrow we will wake off the coast of Greece. Hello Greece.

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