Lush, verdant hills kissed by crisp azure waters.

...That one's for you Sarah.

We left Piedimonte Matese around noon on Sunday and after an uneventful 3 hour drive through a constant rain, dropped off the rental car at the Bari airport and caught a cab to the seaport. We arrived at the seaport around 3 pm with the intention of securing passage on the 10 pm ferry to Dubrovnik. When we entered the terminal, however, all of the ticket windows for Dubrovnik were closed. We panicked briefly at the thought of being forced to spend the night in Bari (which is the ugliest, dirtiest, most godforsaken town I've ever seen... It gives Gary Indiana a run for its money), but an agent at another ticket counter informed us that the window for Dubrovnik would open at 7 pm.

So we waited. Went to the bar and played a game of chess and a few games of two handed euchre, slept, and people watched.

When the ticket counter opened at 7, we bought two deck passages (which means no assigned seats... you just hang out in the common areas on the boat). We entered the boarding queue around 8:30 but they weren't allowing Dubrvonik bound passengers to board, so we waited again. While we were waiting we met Sarah. She had spent the previous week in and around Sorrento for a friend's wedding and was on her way to Croatia for a few days before starting her journey back to San Fancisco.

Once we finally boarded the boat she joined us at a table in the bar. We talked for a while, and after the boat was under steam, opened a bottle of wine that I had purchased in Siena and toasted plastic dixie cups to our upcoming adventure.

Toasting on the ferry from Italy to Croatia.

We all nodded off around 11 30 and slept (as best you can sitting in a bar lounge) unil around 5 30 am. In the morning we made plans to meet at the Pile Gates for dinner and talk about an excursion to Miljet (a nearby island/park) tomorrow.

The boat arrived in Dubrovnik around 7 am. We got off the boat and went through customs at which point we were surrounded by locals looking to rent out rooms. Our original plan was to secure a room through a travel agency but none of them appeared to be open so I decided to give the hawkers at the door a chance. I approached the friendliest looking old lady i could find and asked her what she had. She told me her room was "nice, nice" and was only a 15 minute walk from the Pile Gates (she showed me her house and the Pile gates on a map... they seemd fairly close but the map didn't have a scale). She informed me that the price would be 100 kn per person per night (about 15 or 16 dollars). She said it was a firm price so i told her i wasn't interested and started to walk away. At that point she reconsidered and offered 90kn per night. I countered with 80 and she accepted (so total cost for 2 people would be around 26 dollars per night). She led us to her husband who was waiting in a car nearby and he ferries us up the hill to his house. We inspected the room and it seemed nice enough so we agreed to take it.

The view from outside our room in Dubrovnik

After a brief nap we headed to the Pile gates (more like a 25 minute walk). The old town of Dubrovnik is very interesting - definitely the most beautiful place we've seen so far. All of the buildings are covered in red terra cotta (set against palm trees, and the deep blue Adriatic) and the main streets are made of marble polished by the constant foot traffic (no cars allowed). The town is so pristine it almost doesn't seem real. It reminded me of the country themed town settings at disney world. That effect was reenforced by the fact that entire old town seems to be populated soley by tourists and those who cater to tourists. All of the shopkeepers and restauarant workers speak impeccable english. In fact, I don't think I've heard any Croatian yet.
Some selected shots from Dubrovnik.