April 4, 2023
To Scalea
Today is another training day, the second in a three stage train journey from Ragusa to Taranto. Today we’re bound for Scalea, a seaside town on the Tyrrhenian coast. And before anyone jumps in here to correct us by pointing out that Tropea is in Calabria, not Puglia, rest assured that we know that already. It just didn’t make much sense to have a separate section heading for Calabria when this is the only stopover we have there. Close enough, we’ll just lump it in with Puglia.
And, as long as we’re on this interesting topic, we may as well point out that the same thing will come at the completion of this section of the tour when it ends in Termoli, in Molise. We’ll include it in the Puglia section also. Try to hold that in mind for the next month so we don’t have to remind you when we arrive in Termoli.
As context, here’s the overall train journey from Ragusa to Taranto:
1st day: Ragusa to Siracusa
2nd day: Siracusa to Scalea, with a connection at Villa San Giovanni
3rd-4th days: layover in Scalea
5th day: Scalea to Taranto, with a connection at Battapaglia
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And as long as we’re showing overviews, here’s a preview of the Puglian part of the overall plan. It’s broken into two parts. The first, a loop of the Salento peninsula (the ‘heel’ of Italy), is new. It’s the replacement for most of the dropped days in Sicily and Basilicata. The second, from Matera to Tremoli, is the same as the original plan other than for adjusted dates.
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If there isn’t a recognized bike traveler’s law that all train trips are inherently stressful, there should be. Today’s ride from Siracusa to Scalea was really just fine, in that nothing went wrong. It was the perfect counterpoint to yesterday’s nail-biting ride to Siracusa. In fact, some things went very well. Enough so, that we might as well enumerate them:
- Our initial train departed at 10 AM, a very reasonable and convenient hour.
- The Siracusa train station is only a four minute, 400 meter walk from our hotel. Having screwed this up badly last night, we got our directions right this morning.
- It didn’t rain.
- We had a transfer at Villa San Giovanni, with an hour layover that was about ideal: long enough so we didn’t need to stress over missing our connection, but short enough that we didn’t waste. Lot of the day sitting around in a train station.
- Our train leaving Siracusa departed 15 minutes late, but we still arrived in Villa San Giovanni 45 minutes before our next departure so we still had plenty of time to make the connection.
- We have paid, reserved space for the bikes on both trains, and both trains actually have the promised bike facilities.
- There’s no elevator for the track underpass at Scalea, but it’s not needed because the underpass is nicely ramped. We’ll especially appreciate this when it comes time to leave Scalea in three days and have a 7 AM departure to catch.
In spite of all these good things that came to pass, we were stressed by the trip, pretty worn out by its end, and glad we decided on a three night stay in Scalea to give us a respite before the final leg to Taranto.
So why all the stress, Team Anderson? The short answer of course is that we don’t know in advance that everything is going to go well, so there’s the anxiety of fretting over what might go wrong. This started in Siracusa, when we arrived a half hour early, found what we assumed was our intercity train on our departure track (because no other departure was scheduled for departure on this track before ours) but we’re told by a station agent that we couldn’t board it with our bicycles - this, in spite of the fact that we were specifically ticketed for bicycles, our ticket said the bikes went on coach three, and the train were staring at us. Prominent bike logo on the side. Huh?
We found a different agent to discuss this with, which we thought cleared things up - even though we still weren’t certain because of the language barrier. In fact, this isn’t actually our train. It’s just some other dumb train hanging out taking up space and not scheduled to go anywhere. Our train is still scheduled to arrive, the agent reassures us several times, as the scheduled departure time comes and goes and this stupid nowhere train is still tying up track one. While we wait, we neurotically keep checking the departure board and other tracks to make sure there’s no last minute track switcheroo and we’re actually standing on the wrong track watching our train pull out without us.
Finally, fifteen minutes behind schedule, this train has left the premises and ours arrives. And since it’s fifteen minutes late already and the platform is mobbed by some huge youth group and our car is on the other side of this noisy scrum and boarding is rushed because we’re behind schedule, it’s a stressful mad dash to board in time. But we get ‘er done.
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So we’re on. Now, for the next four hours we can worry about what might go wrong with our connection, especially since we’re starting fifteen minutes behind schedule already.
One thing that adds just a bit of excitement is that this journey is unique in Europe and unique in our experience, so we aren’t really sure what to expect. This train crosses the Strait of Messina when it leaves Sicily for the mainland. The train doesn’t have pontoons, so it’s taking the ferry. This is the only remaining train in Europe that includes a ferry connection. Which is certainly interesting.
Everything about it is interesting really, including the scheduling and logistics considerations. We’re on the Sicily to Rome connection, which is interesting because the Sicilian section has two legs: one follows the north coast between Palermo and Messina, and the other follows the south coast between Siracusa and Messina. Both of them ride the same ferry, so the ferry can’t depart until both trains arrive. They get loaded side by side (and, of course, both have to be the right length to fit on board and probably the same length so their weights will roughly balance). Once the ferry reaches the mainland the two trains link up and continue north as a single train. Interesting.
All that goes fine and is interesting to watch and experience, but is quite a slow process. It takes somewhere around an hour to cross the strait, which contributes to our anxiety over making our connnection because once we get on the mainland we have to run up the cost to Villa San Giovanni. We’re watching the time go by, feeling less and less confident that we’ll arrive in time.
Rachael passes the time with some research, looking to see when the next train comes along and wondering whether it will allow bikes or if our reservation will be honored. I pass it by deboarding the train and going up on deck to look around and buy a few arancini and a small pizza for lunch from the ferry’s snack bar.
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The ferry is just approaching the dock when an announcement comes over the loud speaker that we are arriving at the next stop, Villa San Giovanni. What?? That’s our stop! Somehow we (I) got the idea that this stop is well up the coast near Tropea, even though we’ve actually taken this same ferry trip (but without the train) just four years ago. You’d think I’d have remembered, or at least have consulted the map.
Our immediate reaction of course is to panic because we’re not at all ready for deboarding. Our bags aren’t packed up, our bikes are still strapped to the wall, we don’t know how much time we have, and we’re even confused about expectations. Maybe we’re supposed to get off the train now and walk the bikes off the boat like foot passengers?
But of course none of that makes any sense. It’s a normal stop at a normal train station, and we won’t actually pull in for another fifteen minutes. Plenty of time to get off, and plenty of time to make our connection.
We get off. We get our bikes across to the next departure track, carrying our bikes and gear down one set of stairs and up the other because there’s no elevator, and then wait a half hour for our next train to arrive. It arrives precisely on time, there’s only a two minute layover, the train when it arrives is very long, and we’re standing at the wrong end of it so we run like hell to get to the front end and get our bikes and gear loaded before the doors close behind us and the train lurches into motion.
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We arrive in Scalea right on time, with at most two minutes to get ourselves and our gear off. We know this and are well prepared with everything lined up by the door and our exit plan reviewed. The instant I step off with the second bike, the conductor waves the all clear to the engineer and the train immediately departs. Success!
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Our apartment in Scalea is very nice and will work fine for our three night stay. The only immediate issue is the bikes - there’s no elevator and our room is up five flights of stairs. Our host gestures to a railing outside where we can lock them up, which I do for now. It’s supposed to rain tonight though, so my plan is to come back later and bring them inside and stuff them somewhere or carry them upstairs.
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Immediately after we check in Rachael’s out the door again and off to the store to provision us for our three day stay. It’s after seven when she returns, so we turn right around and leave again for the nearest well-reviewed pizzeria. It’s a tiny place with only a few tables that mostly does takeout, but there’s room for us and the pizzas are great - a bargain at €8 per.
There’s an absolutely full moon above as we walk back to our room, appearing and quickly disappearing again behind clouds scudding across the sky. When we get back we bring the bikes inside, find just enough space under the stairs to stash them folded, and retire for the night.
No stress!
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