Cruising!

                                          Cruising the Adriatic and Other Things

       I lied to you all. We are now in our fourth country, San Marino, which is one of the smallest countries in the world. But first let me tell you how we got here.
       We left the pretty Croatian isle of Hvar and spend some quality time in Split. We had a couple of meals near the ancient ruins of Diocletian's Palace which they are restoring into restaurants, souvenir shops and bars much like many of our city centers are doing with their old train stations.
After wandering around, seeing the sights, killing time until our ship was ready to sail we were waiting, first in line, to go through customs and to embark on our night cruise across the Adriatic to Ancona, Italy.
       These boats are similar to Gulf cruise ships, complete with buffets, self-serve restaurants, fancy dining and casinos.

Ruins soon to be Restored

Our "luxury" ferry/cruise ship!!

We booked a cabin for the night and since I'm a bit claustrophobic, I made sure we had a cabin with a window. It gave us a great view of the Split coastline and of the lights of the various islands as we made our way out to see.

One Coastline of Split

Since it gets light early we saw oil tankers and fishing boats on the water below us on the horizon.
       We had a nice meal at the restaurant, checked out the casino and found that the smoke bothered us both and headed to our cabin.

Lynda's happy that I'm not driving!

After a good night's sleep we woke to public address announcer announcing we soon would be landing in Ancona. Since it was early we stopped at an Auto Grille for a brioche and an espresso. Our plan for the day was to visit the best pizza we have ever had in all of Italy at the Buffalo Brothers restaurant in Rimini.

The Best Pizza Around!

        Last year when we stayed in Rimini we fell in love with the place and they remembered us after we walked through the door. We talked with our waiter, Giovanni, about old times and ordered some delicious dishes before we had our pizza.

Our Friend Giovanni

Lentil and Barley Soup with a Black Olive Pesto

The Buffalo brothers make the buffalo mozzarella which is 100% better than regular mozzarella. Our pizza was delicious and since we were considered regulars we got special treatment. Not just bread with dinner but a special pizza bread they only give to their preferred customers. When our meal was over he brought out the limoncello, on the house, and a special pistachio sorbet, also gratis.
       After a ciao! to our friend Giovanni we headed up to San Marino, a country we found by chance last year and wanted to stay there if we ever got the chance. As is our luck it was a national holiday and parking, already at a premium was being denied by a policewoman. She did allow me to walk the  small streets to the hotel to see what we could do about our bags. After getting misplaced (men never get lost) I found the hotel and surmised that there was no way Lynda was going to drag our luggage up there. The proprietors of the hotel, after I told them I would have to cancel because I wasn't letting my wife walk up there with her bad ankles sent a man with me back to the car, bargained with the policewoman and then we drove up the mountain to the hotel and deposited our luggage. He drove back with me to another parking lot where I was able to park with a special pass for two days. Only in Italy.
       More about San Marino in the next post. It might surprise you.