We’ve never really gave this part of the trip a name. So just wrote it as The Great Crossing in our schedule and name stucked somehow. It’s the bit where we cross the whole European continent along the Mediterranean in one trip, from Istanbul to Barcelona.

We started off with a flight from Istanbul to Rome via Turkish Airlines. Pretty much a non-event because I was so flat out tired from the Conference.

When we got to Rome, the Airport “Express” was late and drove us nuts. Fortunately in a very Italian way, the train to Civitavecchia (Rome’s seaport) was late as well so it worked out.

This is one big chuck of a ferry. More like a cruiser but not really a luxury liner. It’s like a four star hotel on water with propellers. It was a good break cruising for two days on the Mediterranean.