We left Split mid afternoon on a Sunday and arrivef at the port, some 5kms away, first in the queue! After all the freight lorries were boarded we headed on, a fairly small ferry boat compared to others, for an overnight trip to Ancona in Italy. We left at 7pm and arrived at 7am, just as the city was warming up.

  • Leaving Camping Stobrec, Split.
  • First in line to board!
  • David reversing into his spot on the boat to Ancona
  • In place!
  • Split.
  • Journey No 1 underway, cheers!
  • Arriving in Ancona as the sun rose.

On Monday we drove 300 kms across Italy from Ancona on the Adriatic coast to the Mediterranean coast, heading to Rome’s port of Civitavicchia, 50kms north of Rome. We had not slept well on the previous crossing and as the sun was soaring up high, we stopped every 3/4 hour at a service area, had a pee and a drink or lunch, and tried to get half an hour’s nap in the cool of the airconditioned truck! Mid afternoon, the temperature outside had reached 40c!

  • Service station stop, so hot!!
  • Next boat, to Spain.
  • Ready to load….
  • Now in place.
  • Second part of the journey, ready to go.

We drove past some beautiful old cities crossing Italy, in particular Narni and Orte (stock pictures below), traditional hill top towns, split by gorges and rivers.

On board, we had dinner in the restaurant, a lay in the next morning (our inside cabin was dark and cool), coffee and croisant for brunch, lunch in the cafe, a few hours reading in the sun on the decks, all very civilised! We had a lovely calm 20 hour crossing from Rome to Barcelona, arriving just an hour late; we were one of the first in the freight section to offload so we hit the roundabout at the junction of the bottom of La Rambla and the port at 7.30pm, peak traffic time! David was very calm and navigated round with the other lorries, and we arrived in Vilanova just after 8pm, in time to pitch up easily, have dinner and a few drinks before a good night’s sleep!

We have had 5 days at Vilanova Park, caught up on our sleep, washing, shopping and chilling, we have had a few afternoons by the pool just reading and watching the world go by. We have been invaded by Irish, French and Spanish families, it seems school holidays start at the end of June for these kids, so we are pleased to be moving on.

Sunday we head inland for a night’s stop in Zaragosa, which is just about half way though our north coast bound journey, then Monday we head up to Bilbao for a ferry crossing on Tuesday morning, landing in the UK on Wednesday. It has been so hot here in Spain this past week, our air con is not working brilliantly, so we are hoping the weather is a little cooler in the UK in July!