Italy

After a night and a day on the ferry we arrived at Civitavecchia in Italy. It was generally a pleasant crossing despite the best efforts of the disaffected youths running along the corridors in the early hours. Disembarking was the usual semi-organised chaos with every single vehicle trying to be first off the ship. Handling a big bike with a pillion can be a bit worrying on a ship. The painted decks often have patches of water and oil that makes the surface very slippery. With care, we managed to avoid dropping the bike or getting hit by an enthusiastic driver. From the port it was just a short hop up the road to our B&B for the night. I copied the geodetic coordinates from the booking.com app into the Garmin satnav on the bike. This usually works well and gives us an accurate destination without having to worry about the vagaries of postcodes and addresses. In this instance it took us to completely the wrong house. The man looked puzzled when Diane asked if we could stay there the night. After a bit of handwaving in lieu of understanding each other’s language, he leapt into his van and told us to follow. A mile or so down the road we arrived at the correct house. Some people are remarkably kind and helpful at times. Thank you Italian man. We never even got his name.

Next day saw us heading almost directly east an up into the mountains. We arrived, accurately this time, at a tiny B&B in a lovely old house close to L’Aquila. Evening meals are sometimes a bit of a problem. If there is no restaurant close to where we are staying then we often end up nipping out on the bike to buy bread and cheese for dinner. This time, for the first time in several days, there was a wonderful pizza restaurant some 20 minutes walk down the road. Admittedly, pizza is just bread and cheese in another form but this one was hot and very tasty.

In the morning, we headed further into the mountains and discovered snow. Quite a lot of snow. This was fun for a while until we also discovered that our road was closed. It was cold as well, just 5°C and the wind was carrying a light drizzle. On an organised motorbike tour the general rule is to fill up with fuel just before you arrive at the hotel for the night. This way, you have a full tank for the next days ride. We had neglected this and now had the prospect of wandering around the mountains trying to find a way east with only enough petrol for a limited distance. Diane had a small sense of humour failure while I attempted to work out an alternative route. Fortunately, we dropped down into the next valley system and found a small, self-service pump along with a local cheese shop where we could warm up with coffee and a sandwich. We also bought some cheese and then carried on down to the coast where it was warm and sunny again. Our accommodation for the night was a delightful wooden house overlooking the bay. The access track was badly washed out and required a few off-road skills. It all worked out and we enjoyed dinner, bread, cheese and wine, outside watching the sunset.

We followed the coast road out to Vieste. It was a delight. Perfect sunny weather and great ocean views. The road was tight and twisty. A fun challenge that left my shoulders aching. Our room in the Bikini Hotel had an interesting view. No bikinis but there was a spectacular chalk stack jutting out of the sea in front of bright white cliffs. In the evening, we wandered around the old part of town before finding a comfortable restaurant with outdoor seating. Shortly after sitting down an Easter procession came along the road. Many religious types dressed in white robes carrying a cross, a dead Jesus and a Mary. The centred around a man with a loudspeaker on a pole chanting “Ave Maria”. Later, we could hear them all singing in the church.

The road along the south side of the peninsular was equally challenging with the added interest of Easter Saturday traffic. This included a lot of motorbikes some of which were being thrown around the road in quite alarming ways. Back on the main road, we continued south down the coast to Brindisi. Our accommodation was on the far side of the bay from the old town. We walked all the way round and found a remarkably busy restaurant scene packed with Saturday night diners. On the third attempt and after waiting 20 minutes, we got a table with an excellent meal and some particularly good local wine. Puglia is famous for wines.

Next day, we discovered that we could have taken a small ferry across the bay instead of walking all the way round. We were getting a ferry to Greece in the evening so at lunchtime we wandered down to the quayside. Easter Sunday. Not a good day for touristing in Italy because everything is closed. Including the little ferry. In fact, the only place we found open was the coffee shop attached to a filling station. We lingered there for a while drinking coffee and wondering where everyone else had gone. The whole town seemed deserted.

We went down to the ferry terminal early and drank more coffee. Boarding began at 9pm. Not long afterwards we had found our cabin and were sat on deck with a bottle of wine. The ship was docked directly across from the end of the airport runway. In the dark, it was an impressive display of lights. We enjoyed the spectacle of aircraft taking off and landing right in the dark for a while before heading to bed. The ship would dock in Greece at 7:30am but it would feel like an hour earlier because of a time zone change.