Before leaving Alberobello, we enjoyed what will
be our last pizza in Italy for a while.
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| Mel enjoying his last pizza in Italy at Alberobello |
It was nice wandering around the little houses at night and to get a different perspective of the Trulli houses lit up from the top of the town.
We left Alberobello early yesterday morning and
headed to Casamassima, having been woken up at 7.15am by bells ringing out from
the Trulli church just up the road from our Sosta. It would appear that the bell ringers here
don’t know how to bash out a good tune on the ropes - it was one constant bong,
bong, bong for about 15 minutes, then a short break and then they would ring
out again for 15 minutes for the next hour! So, what was going to be a lazy
Sunday morning in bed turned out to be an early morning alarm call and up and
out! In Casamassima we found a big
Bluwash self-service laundry and a couple of washes and dryer later every bit
of clothing, bedding, towels, etc we own were nice and clean, especially as
these Bluwash washing machines use a self-cleaning disinfectant system for the
washing drum during every wash cycle.
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| The big wash and dry! |
And for €0.50 a litre, you can even fill up your
water bottles in the launderette with natural/fizzy water.
Great way of recycling your plastic water bottles.
Driving out of Casamassima we got confused as to
what month it was, as it appeared they were putting up Christmas decorations in July!
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| Casamassima and Christmas Decorations in July? |
It was then on to Bari, where we spent the night
on a Sosta (N41.09570 E16.87868) that doubles up as a storage area for
motorhomes, right next to a military base.
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| Sonny, the motorhome parked up with the military watchtower on the left! |
For €20 you get a secured area, fresh water,
chemical toilet and grey waste – extra if you want electric and wi-fi.
Bari is just a massive concrete jungle of
high-rise buildings, built on a grid system and like many towns/cities in Italy
has a one-way system, so the SatNav got confused (once again) trying to take us
down one-way streets! The city held no appeal for us to visit it, so we
headed 6kms out of Bari to a shopping complex, it was nice just to wander
around in an air-conditioned place and do some browsing around the shops. The evening was spent sat outside the
motorhome watching all the Italian motorhomes come back in after their weekend
out on the coast and chatting to our one and only neighbours for the evening –
a Dutch couple with 3 young girls, who were planning to get the same ferry as
us to Greece. However, 5 days ago they
got their bag snatched that had all their passports in. They had arranged with the Dutch consulate to
get some new ones sent to Bari and were hoping to collect them Monday morning
and then on to the port in the hope that they could get a ticket. We had bought ours a month ago online and
there weren’t many spaces then, but we didn’t have the heart to tell them that!
Summing up our 64 days in Italy and Sicily we
have:
·
Spent 42 days in Italy and 22 days in Sicily.
·
Travelled 2260 miles (3616 kilometres).
· Stayed at 34 places (Campsites and
Sostas).
We have had a fantastic time touring around all
the places but we won’t miss:
·
The pot-holed and bumpy roads (Sonny, the
motorhome's suspension won’t miss them either!).
·
The crazy Italian drivers who have no respect for
the rules of the road or other drivers on them.
·
All the scooters that weave in and out of you at
every turn.
·
All the rubbish that is found everywhere,
especially in the south of Italy.
The route we took below - red route down the west side of Italy and into Sicily, the yellow route back out of Sicily and up the east coast to Bari.
On the whole, the Italian people we have met have
been kind and helpful but we have been surprised how few of them speak any
English, and those who do speak it, their English is limited. So apart from us being able to speak the very,very
basics of the language we have muddled through with sign language or a bit of
Spanish/French, as it appears to us that Italian is a mix of both languages!
We will miss watching the Somalia sellers walking
up and down the beach, trying to sell their goods (jewellery, sun glasses, clothing, beach
wear, etc) – there are so many immigrants that have come across on boats to
Sicily/Italy. We have bought a few things from them, mostly because they engage
in conversation with you, tell you their stories on how they have come to this
country with very little and have lost their families on their way. You can’t help but feel sorry for them.
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| Somalian Beach Seller |
We hope to be back in the north of Italy later in
the year but for now it is Arriverderci Italy, and tomorrow it will be ghia sas
Greece!
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| Our ferry that sets sail at 19:30 bound for Igoumenitsa, Greece |
Sally x
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