Catania to Athens | Day 3

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 4

Matera to Alberobello

The next morning, at sunrise, we had the town all to ourselves. We walked around for a good hour or two before visiting the stables.

The word awe doesn’t do Matera justice. We were shellshocked, traumatized by its beauty.

We packed our steeds left parked in the open air for the night, bid our goodbye to the cave and set on a roundabout route to Bari.

Our original plan was to take a ferry from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa followed by a 5hr ride to Athens, but monitoring the weather along the way we realized we’d probably end up riding four of those hours in the rain. Reconsidering our options we found that we could accomplish the same by taking a ferry from Bari to Patras instead. 16hrs on the boat followed by a 3hr ride. Limited chance of rain and a good night’s sleep for Min. We bought the tickets.

The night before our dear friend Erica tipped us off about Alberobello so that became the new route for the day: Matera > Alberobello > Bari.

Consulting both Google and AI in order to find the most scenic local roads we picked our way through rolling hills and stone segregated farming lots and reached Alberobello an hour and a half after setting out.

Alas, the town ended up being a bit of a disappointment. Yes, the conelike rooftop architecture is quite unique and the town is worth a visit, it’s a UNESCO heritage site after all. But it’s also overtourism central.

On the 30th of March, well before the height of the tourist season, it was packed to the hilt. We did manage to find a few streets to ride through however, above.

At the end of the day we decided that the unique architecture of the region is best enjoyed in its natural setting in the hills and on the side of the road, miles away from the tourist buses.

Alberobello to Bari

The last stretch that day took us from Alberobello to the large port city of Bari, also the capital of Puglia.

My favorite road that day was SP113 from just outside of Alberobello to the seaside highway SS16. SP113 is all about countryside Puglia with a generous serving of curves. As relaxing as they come. The two lanes in each direction SS16 was narrow and busy, somehow unsettling in comparison.

Along the way we picked a random miniscule seaside town for lunch. The time was about right and we figured it would be easier to park the bikes within an eyesight of where we would be sitting.

We got quite lucky. The restaurant was right on the water. The diners turned out to be mostly foreigners including four British cyclists in their mid-70s, probably lifelong friends.

A seafood and a pasta dish later we were back on our way.

We reached Bari mid-afternoon with plenty of time till the 5pm embarkation. The port area is quite extensive. It probably takes 2-3km to reach the Superfast dock at the very end once past the gates and first security booths. We paid a quick visit to the terminal to get a sense of what lay ahead and print out our tickets — a very low friction affair — before heading back into town for a quick ride-through and a beer.

360 video, spin around, not sure why this one defaulted to an angle with yours truly.

Impossible to pass judgement on a city that size based solely on an hour visit so I’ll restrain from doing so. The little that we saw of the old town and the seaside promenades made a good impression. On that particular Monday afternoon the city wasn’t very congested, but alive. Appeared clean and livable as well.

Ferry to Patras

Our boat to Patras was our first Greek ferry on this trip.

The Tirrenia and Grimaldi lines we took from Genoa to Sardinia and Sardinia to Sicily were both Italian in character if not ownership. Aboard Superfast everyone suddenly spoke good and sometimes perfect English and the endearing Italian nonchalance was replaced by deference and four star hotel personal attention. Unnecessary, but noted and appreciated. We spent three months practicing our Italian before reaching Milan. Italy has the lowest percentage of English speakers of any country in Europe. Greece is on the opposite end of that spectrum. Nearly everyone has some knowledge of the world’s modern lingua franca. Some speak it as if they’ve spent 20 years living in New York. Min’s strategy was to charm the rest with Kalimera (good morning) and Efcharisto (thank you).

The embarkation procedure mirrored that of the other ferries we took thus far. Bikes get a free pass to the front of the line and are first to enter the docks where they’re directed to designated spots on the ferry. The motorcycle tie up spots are located on the port side of the ship like Tirrenia, but on the lowest dock and perpendicular to the direction of travel, like Grimaldi.

As with the Palermo ferry the tie down process is handled by the crew. For the first time on this trip we decided to leave most of our luggage with the exception of the computers and essentials on the bikes. Not because we had more confidence in the Greeks than the Italians, but because we were tired of hauling everything up to the cabin and back then reoutfitting the bikes the following morning.

We set sail on time at 19:30 shortly after the sunset and watched the lights of Bari disappear for a few minutes before settling down for the evening in a comfortable couch at one of the ship’s bars. I decided I had consumed enough calories that evening while Min grabbed a quick snack at the buffet. She liked it better than what we found on the Cagliari-Palermo ferry, a culinary disaster.

We slept pretty well that night. Surprising considering all the snoring in the adjacent cabins on either side.

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