Day 94: Friday 20 June – Ferry Tickets and Ostuni, by Ken

There was light rain during the night and the sky was a deep pink in the east when I got up. It didn’t bode well. However, while I was having my usual morning two cups of tea and writing up the previous day’s blog the overcast cleared, the sun came up bathing the cliffs and peninsula to the west in a deep yellow glow. Perhaps it wasn’t going to be a bad day after all? As it turned out it wasn’t, nothing but sunshine from a deep blue sky with the temperature getting up to 27°C.

Our mission for today was to buy tickets for the ferry that would take us across the Adriatic from Italy to Greece. Ordinarily we would have done the whole thing on line from our camping ground but the wi-fi at Camping Porto Miggianno still wasn’t working. The nearby town of Santa Cesarea Terme is clearly a holiday destination and we set off in Smarty to look for an internet café. We were out of luck on that front, but did find a Bancomat to top up our dwindling cash reserves.

Jane thought we should drive to the ferry terminal in Brindisi. While that was over 100km away, that way we could be sure we would be on a ferry on Monday as planned. (Jane likes certainty). Leaving Santa Cesarea Terme I got a friendly nod from one of the two Carabinieri standing in the shade by the roadside. We got as far as a small village along the coast when I suggested there had to be a better way and how about we return to the camping ground where I had left both our mobiles? I could buy some data on my New Zealand mobile, use it as a hotspot and buy our tickets on line. We backtracked.

At the camping ground a man was selling fruit and vegetables from the back of his ute. Jane bought some small purplish things that she thought were figs, but looking at them she wondered whether they might be onions. Dissecting one she was pleased to find it was indeed a fig.

I tried for a while to get the personal hotspot up and running on my iPhone without any luck. I then realized there was no 3G signal and hence no data. We decided to have another look for an internet café, this time we parked Smarty and set off on foot. We were in luck, a sign indicated there were free wi-fi spots in lots of towns and villages and we were standing at one. Jane opened her iPad and sure enough ‘pidds’ came up as a wi-fi network. The access process required sending an SMS to pidds which would respond with a password. I sent the requisite SMS on my phone and waited, and waited. I repeated the exercise on Jane’s phone, still nothing – perhaps the system wasn’t going to respond to an NZ or UK number, maybe it had to be Italian?

We decided there was nothing for it but to head for Brindisi and hope we either got a 3G signal on my mobile, or we spotted an internet café. Jane was driving, it was a lovely morning, we were in no rush and she decided to take the coast road rather than motorways. Leaving Otranto there were three or four policemen in dark blue uniforms – Polizia Statale, (I think) crime fighters who are rivals with the Carabinieri. (There are at least five police forces in Italy, two others being traffic police and then there is the ‘Finanza’ who police financial crime, money laundering and drug trafficking.

As we neared the police we could see two were looking at a piece of paper and then one signaled us to stop waving a white ‘lollipop’ and pointing to an area just ahead of their cars. It was a while before a sergeant came over to my side of the car. He looked scruffy with a couple of day’s growth and he was smoking a cigarette. I got in a friendly ‘buongiorno’ which he reciprocated with a smile. Then he asked for documents and Jane produced her New Zealand driving licence which he studied with a frown and then a smile. Handing it back he said we could go. I gave him an ‘arivedeci’ which he echoed, still smiling. I asked if I could take his photograph but was told with a smile that was not allowed in Italy. We had no idea why we were stopped.

We realised taking the slow road meant that the ferry ticket offices might be closed for siesta by the time we reached Brindisi so we cut across country to Lecce and then took the motorways. Heading south past Brindisi yesterday the exit to the ferry terminals was well signed with symbols of ferries and “Grecia’. South of Brindisi the signs on the approach to an exit showed ‘Port’ and a ship symbol, no mention of Greece and no ferry symbol. I assumed that was not the exit for the ferries. Jane wasn’t so sure but pressed on along the motorway. I was wrong, the next exit was for the centre of Brindisi. We came off at the exit after that and found the ramp that would take us south on the motorway again and took the exit to Greece. Nearing the port Jane decided it was my turn to do the tricky driving. It wasn’t tricky at all, just a few minutes later we spotted a large ‘Ferry Tickets Greece and Albania’ sign and I pulled in in front of a modern building.

Ferry Ticket Office (taken when we passed on Sunday when closed)

Jane had been fretting about how we would be able to buy a ticket that covered the pair of us, a camper van, a Smart car and a cabin all in Italian. She had solved part of this dilemma by preparing a sketch of our vehicles, labeled in Italian and showing key dimensions. Before going in to the ticket office we agreed we would take the 20:00 sailing from Brindisi to Patras on Monday.

Jane's Sketch

I led the way into the ticket office. The woman behind the counter smiled and said ‘good morning’. She had near perfect English. Unfortunately there were no cabins available for the Monday sailing so we opted for the 13:00 on Sunday arriving in Patras at 08:00 on Monday – actually more convenient timing than the Monday sailing. We booked an external cabin and the whole thing was more than €150 cheaper than the online price Jane had found when researching the ferry crossing. Well worth the drive to Brindisi. We were given a map giving directions to the terminal and the woman explained the process for exchanging our voucher for boarding passes. We drove to the terminal and set it as a ‘Favourite’ in the satnav so that we could go straight there on Sunday.

Feeling very pleased with our morning’s work we programmed the satnav to take us to the town of Ostuni, about 40km northwest of Brindisi. We were keen to see what our guide book described as one of southern Italy’s most stunning small towns. We weren’t disappointed. It’s known as the ‘white city’ and it was obvious why as soon as we saw it in the distance. The white houses of the town stand on, and spill down, three hills that reach a long way above the surrounding plain which has olive groves as far as the eye can see.

Ostuni As Seen From Olive Groves As We Approached The Town

We parked on the outskirts of the town and walked up its steep roads to the centre. It was 13:30 and Jane was ‘hangry’ stopping at the first trattoria we came to. I managed to get her to walk another 100 metres where tables were set out under umbrellas in a large square. We stopped at the second restaurant we came to, mainly because the menu looked good and a waitress spoke to us in good English.

There was just one other table occupied – by a group of six Americans who talked a lot without saying much. Most were eating pizza and one of the women asked the waitress for aioli which completely threw the waitress. Hardly surprising we thought, it's French and not something you would ordinarily put on pizza. The woman said "you know garlic in oil". The waitress returned with napkins and the woman explained again, in English, what she wanted. This time olive oil was delivered to the table at which point the woman gave up.

We ordered a seafood salad and a pizza Neapolitana to share between us. Both were excellent.

Our Lunch stop

After lunch we explored some of the town walking its narrow streets and alleyways to nearly its highest point. It was absolutely charming with lots of small trattoria, shops and churches. In a side streets a number of restored old cars including Jaguar, Citroen, Rolls Royce, Fiat and MG were parked. 

Citroen With Jaguar Behind

I had to Google this - the badge on the Rolls-Royce was changed from Red to Black not, as popularly believed to commemorate Henry Royce's death, but because Royce himself decided black was aesthetically more appropriate.  Some customers complained that the red badge often clashed with the colour of the car. 

And here's some shots of the town:

We had planned to visit beaches nearby that are reputed to be good. However, it was getting late so we took the motorway back to Brindisi and then the coast road to Otranto where we stopped to stock up on supplies. Our journey from there to Santo Cesare Terme was halted briefly in a village where a truck with a tilting flat bed was winching on board a car that had hit another on the narrow road. The car being winched wasn't moving parallel to the truck bed so a few guys jiggled it around until they were happy.

Car Being Given A Helping Hand

Back at Mabel we ate cheese and biscuits with fruit for our evening meal.

Today's Trip In Smarty (323km)