It wasn’t long after sunrise as the ferry from Tunis headed into Salerno. It was Sunday morning and I was hoping to have the chance to ride the famous Amalfi Coast Road without its infamous bumper to bumper traffic.
The wish came true for most of the morning and a long stretch of the road.
But by 11 the traffic was thick and it was time to leave the coast road and into the mountains.
The mountains above Amalfi as beautiful as the coast with small villages, wonderful views and mountain walks.
From here its a lovely ride through the mountains to Ottaviano at the base of Mount Vesuvius.
And onto Naples its beautiful trattoria and fellow guzzista.
Mid September 2024, Storm Boris was brewing on the Adriatic Sea, making the best path south to Civitavechia and the ferry to Tunisia over the mountains via Bologna into Tuscany.
And it’s beautiful hilltop towns and cities.
One of the most spectacular of the hill top cities is San Gimignano
It’s popular to visit but not as busy as nearby Florence that I visited back in 2022.
In the city, it’s all walking and full of activity.
Across a little valley from San Gimignano there’s a campground in the little village of Santa Lucia
With a terrace where you can watch a balloon rise over San Gimignano.
As it was coming to the end of the season, so finding a place to camp at Principina a Mare right near the beach.
The beach at Principina has amazing beach shelters made from driftwood.
Out of Tuscany and into Lazio, there was time for a lunchtime time stop in Tarquinia.
The blog above and this are an attempt to catch up on telling tales of 2024’s adventure in Italy and Tunisia.
Padova is a beautiful university city. Not far from Venice, the city captures Venician elegance without the crowds.
The central plaza contains statues of thee great philosophers and is flanked by magnificent Cathedrals. The second oldest University in Europe and sumptuous Italian food.
Chioggia, is at the southern end of the Venice Lagoon. A commercial fishing port with canals and historic building and beautiful seafood.
D’Ababo is a Terme Centre to the west of Padova. People come from all over Italy to soaking the therapeutic waters and hot mud baths.
The town in named after Pietro D’Abano who commenced the medicinal use of the water and mud back in the 1200s.
The town is modern and lively especially in the Terme apart of town and a good market in the residential area.
From D’Adano it was across the mountains of Emilia-Romagna into Tuscany.
Ferries have become an integral part of my travels in Europe. This year, I travelled on 5 ferry routes.
The route from Plymouth to Santander on Brittany Ferries is a great route. Expensive compared to the Mediterranean routes, but wonderfully well organised and quite luxurious.
Also, Plymouth, with its amazing maritime history, is a great place to head to ‘The Continent’.
The queuing for the ferry is a great place to meet other touring bikers and check out their bikes.
After riding east from Santander along the Pirenoes, the next ferry route was Barcelona to Genova. This was on GNV.
The Italian ferry companies are a little less organised than Brittany Ferries. Also, Barcelona is a challenging port as it’s right in the centre of the city, which adds the additional challenge of managing city traffic to get to the terminal.
The overnight ferry left Barcelona late morning, arriving in Genova just after dawn. Perfect if the plan is to head to Torino and the Italian Alps
After a three week tour through Italy, the port at Civitavechia called as there awaited the Grimaldi lines ferry to Tunis.
The ferry terminal at Civitavechia, the port of Rome, is large and sprawling with a large number ferry and cruise ship terminals.
Civitavechia itself is a lovely seaside town.
The ferry to Tunisia was the smallish, oldish, MV Catania a bit quirky, but full of colour, and life.
It was a moment of total excitement arriving in Tunisia.
Thankfully, there was a motorcycle tour group from Italy to follow through the rigours of customs- visa, import bike, buy insurance and change money
After a couple or weeks touring Tunisia, it was time again to negotiate customs again and catch the MV Catania to Salerno.
Arriving just after dawn in Salerno was both beautiful and perfect for riding the Amalfi Coast road traffic free. (But that story is for another blog)
Having said goodbye to Tunisia it was soon time to say goodbye to Italy. Back at Civitavechia this time to board the Grimaldi Lines ferry to Barcellona. The MV Roma and MV Barcelona cross between the Italian and Spanish capitals 6 days are week. These are the largest most luxurious ferries on the Mediterranean. After over 12,000km of travel the 23 hour crossing is a luxury.
Unfortunately, the ferry arrives in Barcelona at 23.00 not handy really for anything but it saves over 1,400 km of riding.
It was late October as I queued with the other bikes I the cold and rain of Santander to catch the ferry back to Plymouth. The Bay of Biscay was a little rolley but it was warm and pleasant inside the ferry.
Santander is the only ferry port that has a duty free shop. Perfect for buying a beautiful Spanish Brandy.
Over the years of motorcycle travel in Europe I’ve come to learn how the careful integration of ferry travel the planning helps the traveller to spread their wings much further that otherwise possible.
The lilting tones if the Irish Harp seemed like the perfect time to conclude my Irish holiday. But one more stop before the ferry town of Rosslare.
In New Ross there is a monument to immigration. With an eternal frame.
It sits outside the migrant museum.
The Dunbrody migrant ship stands testament to the over 1.5 million Irish who emigrated to the US to escape oppression, famine and genocide
There are two plaques at the memorial. One a poem by Thomas Moore.
And the dedication plaques opened by representatives of the US and Ireland.
It makes me think that so.many of us are migrants or children of migrants, yet now we denigrate and persecute migrants who, like our forebears, are escaping persecution, hunger and displacement.
The monument is, by its existence, a memorial to the Irish famine/genocide. The Irish still carry the scars of those times.
In my 2018 trip I visited Derry Bogside and this is a photo I took then.
Genocide continues in Palestine and we should not be silent.
From the beachside village of Rosslare there is a view across the bay to the ferry harbour. Next morning I would be crossing the Irish Sea.
