Strade Bianchi and the ferry from Ancona

Obviously we started early. We always do but today I was up at 4.30am to nurse an ailing Internet connection back to life. My ministrations were not in vain and a precious packet of pixels made its way to a cyber repository safe and sound within the hour. At the same time I made my way to breakfast and to the truck leaving only the computer to be packed prior to the 5.30am departure. We had around 200km to do before 8.00am.
Fog was once again the dominant feature of the dark journey and was so thick across the central highlands of Italy that one of the cars drove straight into a roundabout. No injuries but a lot of damage we’re told although the Rover is still running. As day dawned, the fog lifted and we pulled off the Tarmac onto the Strade Bianchi, the white gravel roads so common around here.
The ‘test’ was a circuit on a hillside and had it all, narrow climbs, descents, switchbacks and off camber washaways. No surprise that the smaller cars made the most of it.
Once the competition had been wrapped up we made our way to the Port of Ancona to catch the Superfast to Igoumenitsa on the other side of the Adriatic. These ships are excellent, the cabins and food on board are superb. It’s an eighteen hour crossing though so they need to be. There’s even wifi, it’s slow – painfully – but its reliable enough to send another load of pictures up to the ether. We dock around 8.00am and head straight into the Greek hills.