We left Spain via ferry for Genova, Italy, which is on the coast in the northern/central part of the country. It was an overnight 16 hour trip but it seemed far superior to an overnight train ride with multiple train connections through multiple countries. The ferry wasn’t so bad. It was more like a cruiseship with multiple restaurants and even a piano bar—very cheesy. The majority of our fellow travellers were over 60 or under 20.

In the end it turned out to be a good trip, we watched the world cup in the bar and enjoyed the fact that we were pretty much forced to do nothing at all for a day.