Day 10 - Thursday 3rd September

We were woken this morning at about 7am by a noisy truck outside our hotel window. Suzy rushed out onto the balcony to check that it didn’t sideswipe our car which was parked in the narrow lane next to the hotel. Fortunately the truck went down a different lane.

At about 8:30, I went down to reception to ask if a fax had arrived overnight from the RTA about my licence. There was no-one at reception and so I went into the restaurant where I found the owner’s son and one waitress (but nobody having breakfast).

He didn’t speak English and didn’t understand me. He rang Angela and seemed to be asking her if she had given me a copy of the fax they sent last night. I asked to speak to her and she then explained the problem to her brother at which point he then found the fax from the RTA on the desk in front of him.

The RTA fax listed all the details of my licence. I had expected an official-looking certificate but at least the fax stated all the facts. It was a relief to receive it.

They served a very nice continental breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We were still the only people there.

The hotel is elegant and tastefully decorated. The street level has marble floors, dark-stained timberwork, stained glass windows and doors, chandeliers, etc.

The owner’s daughter, Angela, came in as we were leaving after breakfast. She explained that there was a hotel in the premises previously but they gutted the building and completely rebuilt the interior, refitted it to the family’s own design and reopened it about 12 months ago.

We left the hotel at about 9:30 and headed east on the A25 autostrade. Last night, we had looked for Avis locations and found that the nearest one was in a town called Chiete which is about halfway between Sulmona and the coast. The TomTom successfully led us to the Avis office. We explained the problem, showed them the paperwork and they added me as the second driver for the hire car. Problem sorted.

I then took over the driving as we headed south towards Bari on the A14. This road proceeds near the coast line with some glimpses of the Adriatic Sea. At Termoli, we turned off the autostrade to take a closer look at the sea. This is an industrial town and we couldn’t find anywhere interesting to stop and so we got back on the autostrade.

About 1pm, we stopped for lunch at a service centre. When we asked for café Americano coffees, the cashier thought it was amusing. The staff and customers at the service counter thought it was even more amusing. We didn’t understand the joke and Suzy wondered if she would be brave enough to order café Americano next time.

The TomTom successfully led us through the town of Bari to the ferry port. We reached the ticket office at 3:30pm and picked up the tickets we'd booked for our overnight journey across the Adriatic Sea to Corfu.

Suzy had originally wanted to travel next to an interesting town south of Bari but we decided we didn’t have enough time. So we drove into the centre of Bari, parked the car in a street next to a pleasant park lined with palm trees and walked a few blocks to a have a cup of coffee (café Americano) in a sidewalk café in another street lined with palm trees.

Next we walked a block or two down to the water’s edge. There were various pleasure craft and fishing vessels moored at the marina. It was a nice setting next to the blue Adriatic Sea on another hot sunny day.

The TomTom successfully found the Avis depot for us about 1km away near the railway station. After leaving the hire car wth them, we caught a taxi back to the ferry terminal.

The port area consists of wharves that run for several kilometres along the coast. The wharves cater for freighters, passenger ferries and car ferries. Ours turned out to be a car ferry that was big enough to take numerous semi-trailers and petrol tankers as well as cars. There was no specific entry for passengers and so we had to pull our bags up the steel ramps that the trucks and cars use.

Because our tickets were so cheap, Suzy had been worried about whether the ferry would run and what services would be available on board. It left on time at 8pm and there were two bars and a cafeteria. Our cabin was on the top level and consisted of two double bunks and an ensuite bathroom.

We had finished dinner by the time the ferry pulled out and so we sat on the deck and enjoyed the warm sea breeze as we sailed out into the Adriatic Sea under a full moon in a cloudless sky.