Trogir to Brindisi, July 2024

Our last week in Croatia

We made it back to Trogir (near Split airport in Croatia) in plenty of time to pick up Jeremy. There was even enough time to do some shopping for a much needed induction cooktop, which turned out to be harder than we had expected. The cooktop on Nova Jean is not a standard size so we had to make do with a portable unit that we are currently resting on top of the gas cooktop. It seems to be working very well though, and our batteries and solar setup seem to be coping with the extra consumption. The real test will be when the days get shorter and we have less solar coming in.

We were very excited to see Jez, hear about his recent travels and show him around some of our favourite places in the Split area. We would be dropping him off in Brindisi, Italy, so we had some miles to cover and a few new places to explore on the way.

Trogir

If you ever fly into Split Croatia, my advice (for what it's worth) is to avoid Split and go directly to Trogir. Trogir is much closer to the airport and is easily 10 times nicer. The old town is situated on an island half way between the mainland and the much larger island of Ciovo. It's a little like Ile de la Cite in Paris in that way. Trogir is a beautiful town with wandering cobblestone streets, packed with restaurants. The Euro Cup was on at the time, so it was also pulsing with excited football (soccer) fans. Every restaurant had a big screen playing whichever match was on at the time.

Vis (Vis Island)

On the way to Vis, we spent the night in Vrboska, Stari Grad & Hvar. All places that we have blogged about in the past. Vis however was new. The town of Vis was less than spectacular. There were some nice looking restaurants and bars and that was about it. The highlight was the free outdoor Jazz concert, just near where we anchored.

Stiniva Beach (Vis Island)

For our second night on Vis island, we moved around to the South side of the island. Stiniva Beach is Croatia's answer to Sa Calobra in Spain. A narrow beach between cliffs in an equally narrow inlet. It looks stunning and the water was crystal clear and as a result, it is super popular for tour boats and day boats. Unfortunately though, the place was teeming with little jellyfish. The yelps from the visiting tourist as they were stung became amusing after a while. None of us ventured in the water that day.

Komiza (Vis Island)

Our plan for our last day on Vis was to go to the town of Komiza and take a tour over to the famous Blue Caves (yes I know, every cave in Croatia is called Blue Cave) on the small neighbouring island of Bisevo.  By the time we got to Komiza, a huge Southerly wind had come in and it was no longer safe to visit the caves. I believe this was a blessing in disguise, as the alternative of exploring Komiza was simply delightful.  If it wasn’t for our imminent need to cross to Italy, I would have voted to stay for another day. My favourite memory was a bunch of 12 elderly blokes sitting out the front of a cafe, starting an impromptu singalong with in perfect harmony. I really wish I had recorded it.

Crossing to Vieste, Italy

Our 12 hour sail across the Adriatic to Italy went well. As usual, we slept poorly the night before which meant we were doubly knackered when we arrived in Vieste. As a town, Vieste isn’t anything to write home about, but boy was the Pizza good that night. 10 points to the back street pizza ristorante we went to. It’s fair to say tough, that not many people from outside of Italy, visit Vieste.

Biscegli

Not much further down the east coast of Italy is another rarely visited town called Biscegli. The harbour officials were very friendly and welcoming. They placed us on a public quay that we would later discover, is used by a very large outdoor Pilates class. 30 odd people were doing their Pilates right next to Nova Jean while we were lazing on the foredeck drinking sundowners. We felt very out of place. As for Biscegli, it had a lovely, non-touristy, authentic, lived in, old town that was pleasant to stroll through. The rest of the town was just your average Italian beach holiday destination with not a great deal on offer.

Bari

Bari is a popular destination for cruisers as it has good marine facilities and services, is a large city with all the shops you could possibly need, and a historically significant old town. The port of Bari was significant to the Roman empire as their primary Eastern trade port. To be honest, we fond Bari to be a bit boring. The marina wasn’t great as it was heavily affected by wind and tide, and it was deep inside the enormous international shipping facility. There was a courtesy bus that took us outside and into town, but it was a bit tricky to master. The old town was nothing special but at least the modern city behind it was a hive of activity. The highlight for us was a spectacular wedding being held at the famous Basilica di San Nicola. That, and leaving.

Monopoli

In complete contrast to Bari, I had little expectation for Monopoli other than it offers a free town quay for overnight stay. Wow what a surprise. Monopoly was gorgeous and I wish we had time to stay longer. The photos should paint the picture…

Brindisi

We spent almost two weeks in Brindisi, two years ago. So it felt very familiar. Brindisi is natural safe harbour and also offers a free town quay to use as long as you like. We had four nights in Brindisi and planned to hire a car to take Jez inland to see Alberobello and Matera. We didn’t take any photos of Brindisi as we had covered it extensively in a blog in 2022.

Alberobello

We hired a car in Brindisi and drove inland to the tourist heavy, UNESCO World Heritage town of Alberobello (Beautiful Tree in Italian). The town is famous for its unique ‘Trullo’ houses that date back to 1481. The owners of the territory insisted that all new buildings must be built dry (without mortar), to make them easy to demolish. Having to use only stone, the peasants found the simplest design was the round house with a self supporting dome roof. Many of the peasants had Greek heritage, thus the white washed stone.

Matera

Matera is one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world. There is evidence of inhabitants dating back to 10,000 BC. In fact it was only in the last century that the last of the cave dwellers were moved into modern buildings. The place is both fascinating and extremely hot. Well it was when we were there.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Jez. He needed to head home and we needed to get moving on to Greece. We were picking up another guest in Preveza, Greece in about two weeks and then heading south around the Peloponnese (bottom of Greek mainland).