Wednesday, 4 April

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="044d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="id103.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesday, 3 April"><U><IMG SRC="0450b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thursday, 5 April"><U><IMG SRC="0460b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id98.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="April"><U><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="167af700.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="112" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Bari, Italy</div> <div> View of the harbour from the ferry</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Gastropod's Trail</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gastropods Trail"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Wednesday, 4 April</div> <div> Bari, Italy to Igoumenitsa, Greece</div> <bR> <div> We had arrived in Bari early in the morning from Dubrovnik and drove straight to town, hoping to make early arrangements for passage to Igoumenitsa. </div> <bR> <div> Bari lies roughly halfway along the Adriatic coast, on the fringes of the fertile Terra di Bari. The city consists of two distinct parts, the old city, a maze of twisting lanes, which lies on a small peninsula between the bays of the old and new ports, and the modern town stretching inland as well as along the coast, built to a neatly square plan. </div> <div> It is probably of Illyrian origins and was prosperous under the Greeks. Bari was an important Roman municipium. Conquered by the Goths, and later an object of contention by Byzantines and Lombards, it was repeatedly sacked and destroyed. Conquered by the Saracens in 840, it passed to the Eastern Emperor in 875, who made it the seat of a governor-general. It fell into Norman hands (taken by Robert Guiscard) in 1071 and from that date shared the fate of the Kingdom of Sicily (later known as the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies). It became part of Italy in 1860.</div> <bR> <div> Bari has long been an important center of commerce which has expanded with recent industrial development. </div> <div> Bari's main industries are the transformation and conservation of agricultural and fish products, but also include engineering, petrochemicals, construction materials, printing, paper making, textiles, garments and glass. The port handles domestic traffic as well as shipping with East Mediterranean countries and Africa.</div> <bR> <div> To us, downtown Bari was little more than another large, congested city. As usual, it took a little longer than expected to find the offices of the Superfast Ferry Company and when we finally found it, we were told that we could not make reservations for a same day departure and had to go back to the port and buy our tickets there. Fortunately sailing time was 8 p.m. and we were ready to drive on board at 5 p.m.</div> <bR> <div> We had booked a place on the open deck on the 'Superfast I' and enjoyed a splendid view of the port of Bari (see left) from our spot, as well as plenty of fresh air during the passage which took just a little over nine hours to Igoumenitsa. The Mediterranean was calm all the way and the deck-hand had to wake us as we sailed into Igoumenitsa harbour.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>