Day 31

We departed from our hotel in Rosanna Statzione at around 12pm, the day on the road previously had been a long one and it took some time to wake up! After a rather unsatisfactory breakfast of nothing more than some Italian style 'toast' and a coffee/tea we packed up and got back on the road, heading north around the boot's instep.

The road was mainly single carriageway with a speed limit of 70kph! Needless to say we didn't stick to this! We had 260miles to cover and we needed to do them slightly faster than that! Most other road users including the Police also disobey these rules I might add!

We stopped for lunch in Taranto where we found a set 3course meal for 8euros - nice a cheap we thought. From there we had made the decision to head to Bari on the East coast. The road throught the mountains went past some very Greek-looking villages and then opened up on the plains towards the coast.

From there we bombed up the coast towards our stop for the night, San Giovanni Rotondo which was recommeded to us by an enthusiastic chap we'd met at breakfast. We found it a slightly odd place, it has a lot of churches and seems to be some kind of religious centre. Based quite high up in the hills, inland slightly and with as many hotels as there are people staying here at present! We shall see some more of it in the morning.

We covered 266miles today.