We woke up very early on Wednesday morning in our “dodgy” car park for no apparent reason and were back on the road just after 0700. Refuelled at a 24 hour self service station although limited to 100 euros so not quite filled the tank. Still, we would need to refill again later on in the day anyway. We continued south from Modena and came off the motorway at Rimini. We had decided to treat ourselves to breakfast/ brunch out somewhere along that part of the coast overlooking the sea. We were last on this part of the Adriatic coast in 2017 when we sailed up to Venice so it was good to be back as it is lovely. We found somewhere to park at Riccione, a few miles south of Rimini, by the harbour. All of the beach cafes were still shut but there were lots of activity getting ready for the new season.

We had brunch (at 10.00 although it felt like midday!) in a roadside cafe near the harbour outside in the sunshine. Lovely. Back on the road before 11.00 as we still had a long way to go. As we trucked along the A14 with the sea to our left, we passed various places we had visited either by car or by boat in 2017/8. Lovely to see place names like Ostuni (great restaurants), Monopoli (wonderful little harbour), Bari (overwintered there for two years), Vieste (broke down!) and many others. The journey took a lot longer than we thought as there were major roadworks along both the A1 and A14 so it was dark when we finally arrived in Brindisi. There’s a campervan service area (P4N#34824) just outside the city walls that has a waste disposal point, electricity (not working) and water (couldn’t find it!). It was pretty full, again with long term storage vans, but a motorhome pulled out about ten minutes after we arrived so we slipped in there. We probably could have parked pretty much anyway but the MoHo spaces are wider and longer.

After a quick beer to celebrate our arrival, we wandered into the old city. It dates back to Roman times and we have fond memories of spending several storm bound days there in 2017. We revisited the town quay where we had moored up, the Appian Way Steps and generally ormed about. The main reason for our visit to town was to do some food shopping as we hadn’t managed to replenish since leaving the U.K. and Eurospin didn’t disappoint with Nero d’Avola wine for €2 a bottle. We had other stuff to buy and had to carry the bags back to the van so we limited our wine purchases!

Back to Dora for a meal on board with said red wine before retiring as we had been on the road for over 12 hours. Really peaceful night’s sleep and awoke refreshed on Thursday morning ready for our ferry across to Igoumenitsa on mainland Greece.

Total miles driven today: 510

Total miles driven this trip: 1491

Tolls: €54