Spring Break False Start

I had planned to blog about our trip this spring break and write more about living in Italy after we are back home, but the beginning of our trip affords me the opportunity to do both. We (well really Aaron) had planned out a wonderful road trip through Croatia with dips into Bosnia Herzegovina and Slovenia and a couple nights in Venice before returning home. We had checked airfare directly into Croatia, but found that too expensive for our tastes and instead had the brilliant idea to rent a car here in Rome and take the ferry across the Adriatic, drive north through Croatia, and swing back around through Venice on our way home. We knew border crossings could be an issue, so Aaron thoroughly checked into what was required before deciding on this plan.

Italy loves paperwork. They seem to have multiple official documents for everything, with every document coming from a different office and requiring a different stamp. We experienced this thoroughly when we went through the immigration process (I’ll save that for another post). So when Aaron read that the ferry company required the original registration for car transport, he made sure to talk with the rental car agency about it. Avis assured us it wouldn’t be a problem to use the certified copy of the receipt with a letter explaining that the company keeps original registrations on file at a central office. So we happily went about making further plans for a wonderful trip.

Fast forward to last Thursday.  Aaron picked up the car; we loaded up and headed out. We decided on a slightly longer route that would allow us to drive down the east coast of Italy to the port town of Bari, where the ferry would take us overnight to Croatia. The kids were super excited at the idea of sleeping on a boat. A little over five hours later we arrived in Bari with a couple of hours to kill before checking in at the dock. We strolled the coast, wandered the lanes of the old town, and popped into the cathedral.

In Bari on the Adriatic Sea.

Boys never tire of playing on rocks.

 Next we headed over to the dock. We parked in the line of cars and Aaron went off to check us in while the kids and I waited.  Over an hour later he came back to let me know that they were not going to let us on the ferry. Apparently the lady at the counter didn’t like our car documents and just shoved the passports back at him with a “is not possible.” We had always known that this was a possibility in Italy because often when it comes to official documents everything depends on the level of knowledge and the disposition of the person you’re working with. Aaron said the wait in line itself was crazy. The company was really disorganized. He waited for an hour behind 5 other people who were checking in loads of people (probably tour groups) even though the signs clearly stated that each person must present his/her own passport—apparently this rule isn’t one of the hard and fast ones. At one point a big guy in the back tired of waiting and decided to physically push his way to the front. Aaron almost took an elbow to the face as the guy tried to get to the window. When the man in front of Aaron stopped him a fight nearly broke out. At that point Aaron said he wasn’t sure he even wanted to put our family on the ferry run by this company. We weren’t really sure what to do at that point, but figured our best option was to turn around and get home as soon as possible so we could look for a way to save our trip.

The kids were pretty upset and scared. We told them it would be fine, and that they would get to sleep in their own beds one more night. Five hours later we made it home at 1:30. I woke Sophie up to hear her say groggily, “but we didn’t go anywhere.” Aaron and I spent the next 2 hours finding a way to piece our trip together with a one-way flight, rental car, and train travel. At 3:30 am we finally went to bed.

Aaron was up early to return the car to Avis. When he explained the situation the nice lady replied, “That’s too bad. We’ve had lots of people take the ferry from Bari in our cars. You must have gotten a picky ferry employee.” Of course we did! We felt lucky at this point to get tickets for an evening flight to Dubrovnik—the same flight we’d passed on months before. Aaron found a car in Dubrovnik through a site called “Last Minute Rent-a-Car” (I know!) and we left for the airport determined to enjoy our spring break. More on that to come...