The ferry times to and from Milos are not at all convenient. I left at around 2pm and arrived on the the next island at 7pm, checked into my hostel, grabbed dinner, and got ready to explore the next morning. Now, welcome to Chania on Greece’s biggest island of Crete. I’m starting my exploration of Crete on a Sunday, everything is usually closed on Tuesdays, and it’s Christmas week, so I’m making a mad dash to all of the places…
It was another long, yet easy travel day following the Adriatic coast way up north to Ravenna. It’s probably not one of Italy’s more famous cities, but perhaps it should be. For most of the 5th to 7th centuries, around three hundred years, while the rest of the empire was falling apart, Ravenna was the capital of western Rome and after that, the capital of the Ostrogoth kingdom. Today Ravenna is most well known as the mosaic capital of Italy….
It really doesn’t seem that far on the map, but it took nearly five hours on the train to get from Agrigento to Catania, on Sicily’s east coast. Catania, like most of Sicily’s cities was originally a Greek city, going all the way back to the 8th century BC. The first thing I noticed while walking to my hotel, however, was the remains of the 2nd century Roman theatre. Most of it is buried underneath the modern buildings, but this…
Strap in everyone, this is gonna be a long one. I left Spoleto in the wee dark hours of the morning and made my way down the narrow streets to the train station. Once the train started I promptly fell asleep and didn’t wake up until everyone had almost disembarked at Rome’s main terminal. I guess I was tired. I quickly got up and figured out where my connecting train was and about two hours later, I arrived in Naples…
Not too far from Orvieto is my next medieval town, Spoleto. Spoleto was also an important Roman town, but it’s real claim to fame is as the Lombard capital from the 6th century on. It has a lot of narrow medieval streets and it’s also very hilly. Walking around Spoleto involves plenty of up and downhill hiking. The restaurant in the pic below left is where I ate both nights here, Taverna dello Spagna. They had the best pasta noodles…
Well, it’s about time for another adventure. It seems like I just got back from the last one. Anyway, this time I decided to go to a country that I had planned on visiting three years ago, but got derailed by global insanity, Italy! I finally made it! After around 24 hours of flying, I arrived in Rome in the evening, found my hotel and crashed for the night. I woke up early my first morning and hit the streets….
My drive from Vlore to Sarande was about eighty miles of just unbelievably scenic coastline. Mountains stretching up on one side, the Adriatic Sea extending out on the other, punctuated by the occasional beach resort village, and zipping around the twisting road like an Albanian racecar driver grinning all the way. Fantastic! On the way I stopped at Himare to visit what was described as a castle, but was more of an ancient hilltop village. I walked a lot of…
After all the hiking and jaw dropping scenery in the Albanian Alps, the last couple of days have seemed kind of sedate. I left Shkoder early on a bus bound for the capital city, Tirana. The bus pulled in and the bus right next to us was leaving for my destination in ten minutes. I don’t think my feet even had a chance to touch the pavement in Tirana it was so fast. Anyway, I’m now in the port town…
