Visiting the industrial port city of Ancona in Italy was not a result of having it on any kind of travel bucket list. It was simply to fulfill a transport connection - a ferry ride across the Adriatic Sea to the UNESCO Heritage harbour town of Split, Croatia. Leaving Italy for the last time made us nostalgic. One of the downsides of writing blog posts almost 12 months after the travel date is that the sentimental feelings sweep back. However as this post will attest, our memories of Ancona were of relief (at making it on-board the ferry) rather than a trip filled with amazing historical sites, delicious food and wine.
We reached Ancona on Day 11 of our travels, a short (less than 1 hour) local train ride from Rimini and along the eastern coast of Italy, bordering the Adriatic Sea. The scenery was nothing memorable and on exiting Ancona's main train station we discovered that it had started raining.
 |
| Here comes the rain |
Prepared with kit to handle all kinds of weather, we pulled out the blue plastic ponchos - these were large enough to accommodate shelter for our daypacks. Red luggage rain covers (from Mountain Warehouse) were unrolled and put into use. Overall, we were quite lucky with the weather on our trip [**Travel Tip**: plan your around the world itinerary to follow summer] as the luggage rain covers were put to use only a few times over the five months.
 |
| Mei posing in the rain with the wet weather gear |
Traveling to the Port
From the train station, there was an option of taking a bus to the Ferry Port but armed with Google Maps, from memory we probably decided to walk. And consequently we got lost. It seemed like a straight forward plan to follow the main streets, grab something to eat and head to the harbour. Only our mistake is that we didn't count on large areas near the port being blocked off to pedestrians. This forced us to walk further inland and ending up soaked wet and frustrated in a carpark.
 |
| Areas near the ferry are for vehicle boarding with signs in Italian, we quickly found ourselves lost |
The only sort of historic attraction that we passed by was the Porta Pia (Pia Gate) that was built in the 18th century and was formerly attached to the walls that led up to the Citadel. The gate is decorated with Baroque style stone-work and the coat of arms of Pope Pius VI, whom the gate was built in honour of.
From the high ground we could see the ferries lined up in the distance and like a beacon, we headed for the 'Blue Line' sign and large yellow happy sun painted on the side of the ship.
 |
| Our Ancona-Split ferry |
Our arrival at the port was several hours before our ferry's boarding time and finding dinner was our main priority. The Ristorante Pizzeria was popular with travellers and we ate something small, likely accompanied with Italian beer as we would get something more substantial to eat on the ferry.
 |
| Snack time |
Drama with boarding
We had booked our ferry tickets via the Direct Ferries UK website. There are other online ferry ticket sellers but we found this site easiest to use for comparing departure times and sail dates. As our trip was in the peak of summer, we booked over a month prior to travel and secured a double-berth ticket for the overnight sailing.
When we reached the boarding gate, we had our printed ticket confirmation and were quite relaxed to wait about thirty minutes before the boarding started. It was during this time that Mei started being snoopy and noticed other passengers were carrying a longer style ticket - most likely a boarding pass.
It was then that Mei decided to mention to Olie that something didn't seem right. We had taken ferries before and based on our experience, it was usually a bit of paperwork involved to get on board - particularly when we would be crossing an international border. Signs not clearly marked on pillars also mentioned a 'shuttle bus' and 'ferry departure hall'. Curious, we started asking questions of our fellow passengers and a helpful American pointed out that we needed to travel a mile up the road to the actual 'hall' to exchange our confirmation for a ticket.
Panicking, we decided to make a 'run' for it - we had successfully made last minute dashes for transport connections before and in Mei's mind it didn't seem that far to run a mile with luggage in tow. As our luck would have it, we didn't actually know where this departure hall would be and stopped to ask a guard for directions. It was then that we met six British girls also trying to find the departure hall, depending on us for assistance.
And for the luck of good timing, the shuttle bus pulled up at the exact time and delivered us to the departure hall. **Travel Tip**: For future travellers, it is a temporary looking shed structure located in a car park under a freeway overpass - a place that we would never have found had it not been for the arrival of the shuttle bus.
The rest of the embarkation process went smoothly. We caught the shuttle bus back to the ferry, cleared customs and lined up to get our room key. **Travel Tip** If ever asked for ID on a ferry (as security for the room key), do not surrender your passport but provide something like a drivers licence. Mei gave her passport and spent the rest of the night paranoid about whether it would be lost, we would lose the visas and our entire trip would be impacted.
Our cabin was basic - shower/toilet, small bunk bed and light. Some passengers that did not want to pay for a cabin, had set up a mattress on the corner of a corridor. Others were happy to settle for reclining chairs for the entire overnight journey. We had tried that once on the Portsmouth-St Malo Ferry and never again!
 |
| Do it yourself cabin |
 |
| Reclining chairs |
 |
| Enjoying a wine after the drama of embarkation |
Next blog post:
Split, Croatia
**Connect With Us**
This post was written by: Culture Stamps
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.To connect with us and see snippets of our Culture Stamp travel adventures:
This post was written by: Culture Stamps
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.To connect with us and see snippets of our Culture Stamp travel adventures:
- Follow Culture Stamps on Twitter
- Follow us on Bloglovin Follow my blog with Bloglovin
- LIKE our Culture Stamps Page on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment