SW Spain - Sicily, Italy

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Hi Everybody!
Our first stop in Europe was a 2 night stay in Rota, Spain, a small town on the coast near Cadiz. We have been here on 3 previous occasions and didn't really plan this stop. I had a badly infected eye by the time we arrived. I went to ER and got an antibiotic salve which helped enormously. After two nights, we were able to hop to Sicily, Italy. We had visited Sicily on some earlier trips so again, we just tried to get a hop out. After two nights, we gave up and rented a car. We drove to the east coast and went north to Messina where we were able to catch a ferry to the mainland. The rental car was 60 E ($85 US) and gas was $7 US a gallon. They wouldn't allow us to drive the car out of W. Europe. We decided to drive across Italy to the coastal city of Bari. On this trip, we encountered few individuals who spoke any English. We spent one night on the road in a small resort area called Scanzano. We felt perfectly safe on this road trip and had no problems. We turned the car in at the airport and took a taxi to the port where we bought ferry tickets on a fast ferry. We were surprised that the Italian ferry company would not take U.S. dollars or credit cards - only Euros. We had to kill a number of hours waiting for the ferry.
I will write more later.
E

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