Rimini Beach to Bari

This was a long driving day of about 500 miles down the eastern coast of Italy. We stopped at Rimini Beach which is supposedly by Rick Steve's opinion, one of the best beaches in all of Italy. While it's not the prettiest beach (it is gorgeous, but not like the Amalfi coast) it was warm, calm and shallow. Perfect for Morgan who just ran in and started playing, and was not even phased by the crashing waves. She would either brace herself, or if it knocked her over she would get back up and continue playing.

After a few hours of beach play and lunch we were back on the road heading south. Near Bari at about 10 PM we thought we'd ask our GPS for a nearby hotel. She picked out the biggest dives in the worst part of town! At one point she even said, "when possible, u-turn" and kept saying it until we figured out how to do that! After about an hour of exploring Bari by night - more of a Port city than a tourist destination - we decided to head toward the Zoosafari hoping for a hotel enroute. We were lucky to find a nice 4 star, priced moderately, right off the freeway.

The next morning we had a short 20 minute drive to the Zoosafari where the animals literally stick their heads in your car looking for food. Part of it was a little scary - like the overly aggressive ostrich that was packing at the glass and side mirror and a camel that wanted to put his head through the sunroof. The best was the giraffe that spit all over Jeff! We patiently waited for our turn to pull up to this one giraffe after the car in front of us had fed him for about 10 minutes and snapped a bunch of photos. When we pulled up - all windows down - all I could see was his 6" long black tongue and about 1/2 a cup of spit land on Jeff side and bare leg before he hit the gas forward. Ha!

The Zoosafari was neat - we got to see a lot of animals. Even scary ones where we had to roll the windows up like lions, tigers and bears! Afterward we walked around a more traditional zoo part - with monkeys, hippos, rhinos, flamingos, and amusement park rides.

Morgan loved it and it was really neat since her favorite book has been Barney goes to the Zoo so she even knew many of the animals before we got there.