We made our way in the afternoon to the outskirts of Rome where our tour group was waiting at a very cool campsite with its own pool, restaurant, bar and 'discoteque'! We were split into multishare rooms (this is the roughing it part of our trip!) and taken for an excellent walking tour of Rome. We thought we had seen everything but it was great to catch some of the areas we had missed - several monuments, the Spanish Steps and the Piazza Nouvella among others.
We also finally had a really good gelato at a place recommended by our guide who was especially knowledgable about Rome's history, including myths and legends as well as politics and archaeology. In the evening we had a provided pasta meal and enjoyed a few drinks with the group. They are a bit more outgoing and relaxed than our last group and fascinated by the fact that we chose to do something like this for our honeymoon. Although the romantic parts are essential, it is also great to be doing something a bit more 'out there'.
On Saturday the coach took us to Ancona rather than Bari as we had expected, for the overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa. The wait was phenomenal and in fact the ferry left about 5 hours later than expected but we were told to expect that in Greece where the people are generally so laid back that eta's are pretty much always approximate.
The ferry itself was pretty amazing. Although our sleeping quarters were small and again separated by gender, they were clean and comfortable, and not far away from bars, a disco, a pool, restaurants and a small department store. David and I spent most of our time on the top deck admiring the view, when we were not sleeping.
When we arrived in Igoumenitsa we boarded the coach again for the short trip to Plataria where we had a delicious lunch of lamb gyros and met the flotilla skipper for the sailing section of our trip. There was a lot to learn for safety reasons and in the end it was too late and too windy to head out on the boats that day but we got to know our fellow crew of four girls from the group, and luckily David and I were paired to sleep in the same yacht in a tiny little double bed. The afternoon was lovely - we spent it on the beach getting our first close up with the Ionian Sea. Afterwards we had a beautiful Greek meal of grilled octopus, haloumi cheese and pork souvlaki.
grilled octopus....aglllggllllll!
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