Ancona

Waiting at the platform in Bari, unable to see Gareth, there is an uneasiness and a bit of anxiety setting in that the one transport link we can’t miss is the Ancona ferry to split, and the rate we are going, it's a possibility that we may not make it.

The kids have been standing on a platform now for way too long, it's hot and they are starting to go feral.  We watch all of the people who were supposed to be on our late train depart on the next train that we missed tickets for.  On top of this, my previous experience with taking the ferry across the Adriatic and the reviews online for all the ferry companies, irrational thinking is starting to creep in.

When you have a Euro rail pass for an all you can consume for 3 months, you generally have to pay a reservation fee on top of that at a small cost.  Frecciarossa on the other hand are an expensive reservation cost so €60 later to catch a train that is departing at the same time as the train we are already booked on you start second guessing yourself.  Having ridden these trains from Milan through Venice and down to Rome, we took a leap of faith that this one would cost more, but be reliable and get us there on time.

And we made it to Ancona at the start of check in.  Things have changed now with the process.  The check in counter is nowhere near the ships anymore.  You have to check in, and if you don’t have a vehicle, catch the “20” bus to the terminal.  

With the reviews online of the two major ferry companies mostly 1 star, the next hurdle was going to be getting our tickets to check in.  Only one person per group with all the documentation is supposed to be in the line, so we leave Gareth to do it, and Zach to be the runner back to me if anything is not in order with our reservation.  Gareth came out and said the gypsy looking family in front of him were yelling at the desk clerk and she was given it right back, there was loads of gesturing and an uncomfortable stand off with the family having to hand over money to get whatever they had asked for.  Meanwhile, Gareth handed over our QR code, and passports and was in and out without issue.

So we went from worrying that we couldn’t get dinner, no one had eaten since lunch, to casual dining on the wharf front with a toast to say goodbye to Italy.  When we ordered food, it turned out that Zach was extremely worried that on his last night in Italy, he may not get to eat Carbonara.  He was very relieved to be eating it, and demo’d it with his fresca iced tea.  Not one to stray away from the idea of a burger, Kaia can’t order anything else if there is a cheeseburger, despite the fact she has decided she no longer likes cheese.  

We make our way through boarding, which the kids charm their way through using the words they know in Italian, so the lady just looks and says “yeah I can see you have ticket - you can go” and no other tickets or details to make sure we were going to the right ship on the right day were looked at.

Of all of the stress of the day, the kids were so happy to be on the ship.  They were actually fizzing and very excited.  We stayed up by the bow on the starboard side to watch the process of casting off, and we could hear all the pilot commands being given to the crew.  As we watched the ferry make some very sharp turns to get out of the port, the sun had gone down, the township was lit up and the sea was calm.  We stayed on deck until we watched the pilot boat ram up alongside the ship, the pilot jump off and the pilot boat make its way back to port and we started our sail to Croatia.  

At 10.30pm, we called it a night, went to our cabin, and all slept soundly in our bunk beds.