Igoumenitsa – Brindisi

31st day

Tonight we are taking a ferry to Brindisi (Italy) at the heel of the boot to give you an idea 👢🙃. We are going to the tip (of the boot) to reach Sicily, which is our next destination.
We bought the tickets two days ago. We usually do it separately, Thorqui and I take a cabin and the hold, Thorsten and Beast take a seat and the hold… then since my cabin is double, I ask Thorsten if he wants to join and… he never says no 😉. I assume it’s because he prefers sleeping in a bed rather than in a seat, no matter how comfortable it is 🤣.
Igoumenitsa has little to see, but we felt like taking a stroll and this morning we took the path and walked the six kilometers that took us to the center to see if it would surprise us after all 🧐.

On the way, we came across one of those plaques I told you about that could be seen all over Albania. This one is in Greece, but the end is the same for those who appear in the photos that decorate it 😥.

The city, although it has a lot of life because it is a ferry departure port to both Greece and international destinations, doesn’t have much to offer, so we stopped for a coffee and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of people, and we were quite relaxed until I started reviewing the ferry tickets and realized that ours left yesterday at one in the morning 🤦‍♀️.

It was crystal clear, on the 10th at 1:00 AM 🤣🤣🤣 and we were sure it was tonight. You can imagine the sprint we made to the shipping company’s office (Grimaldi Ferris) to sort out the mess.
I have to tell you that the company’s response was commendable 🎩 and well done. The mistake was ours for not realizing that 1:00 AM on the 10th was yesterday, not today… I won’t tell you how much a ferry ticket with a camper costs for a ten-hour journey, but just thinking that we had to get another one after losing ours made us laugh… hysterically 😖. The girl at the window looked at us as if we were fools, we understood, and then without saying a word and with a smile, she changed our ticket for today with a fee of €30.00 that felt like a blessing 😅.
After the unpleasant moment and with the confirmation that we were traveling today, we walked back to the campsite and stopped at a beach bar to calm our nerves and let the scare pass.

By chance, while sitting on the terrace, a couple of Germans we met yesterday at the workshop where we changed the battery passed by, joined us, and we had a great time chatting about travels and all the good things life gives us in general 😀. It was really nice.
A quiet afternoon at home. We prepared our super sandwiches for ferries, which have become a tradition. T and I agree that ferry food is bad and expensive, and we usually go prepared because it annoys us to spend money on something we won’t enjoy 🙃.

The customs control was quite thorough; it was the first time I had to open the camper and they entered it… well, while they were looking, I was talking and joking with the guy next to me, so I imagine it was more of a show 😉.

At 11:00 we were in line to board, it was quite chaotic. There were no lines, the controllers were either looking at their phones or talking among themselves, completely ignoring all of us 🤣. And we (motorcycles, cars, campers, buses, and trucks) were trying to make our way little by little without getting angry with each other, of course.

The journey lasts nine hours; it’s not very long compared to others we’ve done, but sleeping comfortably is important because tomorrow when we disembark, we will continue on our way, and driving tired is not an option.

We both really like the ferry experience; we’ve been on quite a few, and it represents an interesting change of routine. I still remember the first one I took with Thorqui; I didn’t sleep at all the night before 😥, I thought I was going to end up in the water, and last year in the Canary Islands, I boarded backward on more than one of the ferries we took without any problem.

The usual operation, Beast stayed below in travel mode especially secured (Thorsten wears his harness and usually puts it on double) and Thorqui got the deck, so he can be seen from the upper terraces.

The ship is full of cycling teams going to the Giro, and you wouldn’t believe the entourage accompanying them among trucks, buses, and cars… 🚴🚵.

We are up watching the ship leave and going to bed early because in the morning they wake us up two hours before arriving at port 🤦‍♀️. A day we were going to spend quietly at the beach has turned into a real marathon of almost twenty kilometers, so we are quite tired.
Good night... I’ll keep you updated 😘
Monday, May 11, 2026 – 32nd day Italy Brindisi (Apulia) - Piazza San Francesco (Tasia) 226 km

The crossing was perfect; we arrived at port with Swiss punctuality, and we slept fabulously. With the ticket change, at first, they told us there were no cabins available, we accepted it 🤷‍♀️ but in the end, last night they assigned us a huge quadruple cabin at the bow of the ship with infinite views that we discovered this morning because when we arrived last night it was already dark 😍.
The disembarkation was a bit tedious because being on the last deck, those who were lower logically disembarked first.
Planned stop in Tarsia, a village in the Esaro valley near the Crati river that has two free parking lots for campers with free electricity in its Main Square. A concept that is not easy to find on the road 💚.

There wasn’t much to see. The Church of San Pedro and San Pablo has a large bell tower with bells cast in 1577 and 1768 that, like in all the villages in this part of Europe, chime the hours with that wonderful ringing that T and I have always found charming in all the villages we’ve visited.

Next to the parking lot is a Marian monument dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, as well as The Monument to the Persecuted of All Peoples and Religions, small but very significant considering what is happening in the world today.
Arrival without incidents and a small nap before taking a walk around the village to get our bearings. From the height of the village, we enjoyed the views of Lake Tarsia, an artificial lake created from a dam built in 1959 on the Crati river to meet water needs during drought periods.

It’s a shame that since it’s Monday, the restaurants were closed; we had spotted one for dinner that was listed online as opening at 6:30 PM, but it didn’t end up opening 😟. Luckily, a neighbor saw us waiting, and the super nice lady told us she had called the owners and that apparently, they weren’t going to open today due to an unforeseen circumstance.
We were looking forward to enjoying some delicacy from the Calabria region, but in the end, it couldn’t be 😔, so we decided to order a couple of pizzas from a shop/restaurant and eat them at home. Very good, by the way.
Good night… I’ll keep you updated 😘