I am visiting Cinque Terre on the advice from my daughter, Shauna. Getting from Catania to La Spezia was a no brainer. Bus was 65 euro and takes 12 hours. Train was 70 euro and takes 9 hours. Flying is 79 euros and takes 1.5 hours. So flying it is. The flight takes me to Pisa, then a short 1 hour train ride to La Spezia. My host for the week has offered to pick me up from the train station. The apartment is a short drive out town, in a nice quiet area. Once unpa...

I will miss the very laid back lifestyle of the Aeolian Islands. The next destination is Catania, Sicily. Its a ferry ride from Lipari to Milazzo. Bus from Milazzo to Messina, then another bus to Catania. The road from Messina to Catania hugs the coast, very nice and green but it seems you spend a lot of time in tunnels. Catania is a rather interesting and fascinating place. It is full of cathedrals and churches, Roman ruins and some wonderful architecture. It ...

To get from Croatia to Sicily involves many long hours and plenty of transfers. The night ferry to Bari departs at 10pm and arrives in Bari at 8am. This is the same time that the bus leaves from Bari to Sicily. So i spend 1 day in Bari and cover plenty of ks. One thing about Bari is the lack of tourists. It has a nice old town with plenty of little old lanes. I am sharing an apartment for the night with some university students. One of the questions i ask them ab...

The ferry ride from Dubrovnik is not the best. The ferry is rather old and noisy, so i did not sleep much. I have just a day in Bari, so it is spent sightseeing the town.

8th Its just after 6am and i am woken by the call for pray from the mosque nearby. Need to get up anyway to get ready for our flight this morning. Still no hot water so Naceur started early to boil up a big bucket of hot water for us. I have grown used to the bucket shower. We arrive at the airport only to find the flight is delayed by 1 hour. Its not the best airport to be stuck for any amount of time. So we arrive in Rome and try to catch the bus to the city, ...