Olbia, Sardinia —

I’m here in repose in our cabin on the ferry bound for Genova and I can’t get the theme music from Looney Toons out of my head. This is not because of some lovely childhood memory. The music was blasting through the entire ship while we boarded and got settled. An odd choice for a Mediterranean crossing.

We departed Savona under the simple and somewhat exotic banner of the Corsican Moor. When we arrived at the docks here in Olbia, we were greeted by an image of Wile E. Coyote seven stories tall, plastered to the side of our ship. Hope his famously poor luck holds until we dock in Genova.

This is a bit of a melancholy sailing. From the peaks of Corsica to the deserts of Sardinia, we were unable to cobble together a fine walking adventure. The distances to cover proved too great and fine lodgings too rare. It made for a hell of a fine road trip, but we prefer the solitary paths for our explorations and they too were few. Also, we completely failed to uncover the unfriendly and reclusive character of the Corsicans and Sards. They are famous for their scornful and dismissive attitude toward visitors, yet we encountered only cordial and helpful country folk everywhere.

What a lovely failure.