4. Italy to Greece by ferry: Ancona to Igoumenitsa

A really leisurely start to the day. Self service breakkie in the B&B though a university mathematician had to show us how to use the coffee machine. Embarrassing. He was v friendly and we knicked one of his coffee capsules.

Then a fantastic day of meandering through Ancona. A handsome city of big old buildings and obvious former maritime trading wealth. Garibaldi gets a lot of mentions. Banners asking for justice for Guilio Regeni draped from city hall balcony. A friendly Sicilian selling only citrus and artichokes and arancini shows us photo of him in his youth by the orange trees of his family and makes us smell inside his tangerines. An equally friendly lady in the covered market gives us a bag of her dough balls with our other stuff. We walk up to Cardeto park and stroll around old battlements, past the old Jewish cemetery, Roman ruins, lion-guarded church and back down to the port.

The Trattoria dei 13 cannelle was scene of much greed. Stoccafisso (baccalao) and artichokes and cippollini and raddichio and pistachio semifreddo.

Then to ferry for the Full Interrail Ferry Experience of hogging the comfy bar benches for the night. However everyone smokes on board so we end up on the deck – much nicer anyhow. We meet Adrien (Fr) off to work on a farm in Greece on a 4 month walk around Europe. Nice guy from Chambéry. Chat about sustainable farming.