We love to catch the local transport and walk the villages and cities. We love trains, having travelled Europe and South East Asia experiencing the various coach classes with contrasting degrees of comfort or discomfort. In the 1980s a hard copy of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable was the bible for train travellers. Anne became so expert on our 3-month Eurail sojourn that a PhD in train timetabling was contemplated. Making connections with only a few minutes between arrival and departure were de rigueur.
Italy’s train system is extensive. A mixture of local, regional and intercity links. Whilst Mussolini didn’t quite achieve the clockwork accuracy he wanted with trains, the system essentially works, until it doesn’t. And even when it doesn’t seem to, it does. The age of the internet theoretically makes the Thomas Cook tome obsolete. A range of booking sites as well as Trenitalia, the train operator, will do the job. However, the system does demand deep research. Not every booking site, or even Trenitalia, lists all the train schedules. Creativity is a necessary addition to the toolkit of the traveller. Multiple platforms, so to speak, are required to maximise the system.
First trip – Rome to Santa Domenica Taolo – no problem. Booked through an agency which provided updates before, during and after travel. Five-star effort! The booking from SDT to Taormina through Trenitalia seemed a lay down misère to work effectively. After all they are the carrier.
Our aforementioned prospective racing car driver, Vicenza delivered us to the SDT train station in plenty of time for our 11:31am departure. We arrived 15 minutes earlier than he suggested, just in case. Travellers can never be too cautious when it comes to timetables. The digital display lists a number of trains. The 11:31am Regional 625 to Villa San Giovanni is not one of them. A quick check of the hard copy display showing each train departing and arriving every day also is also devoid of our train. Is there another train station we should be at? Unlikely, in such a small place, but we have been caught out before at the wrong airport in Istanbul. The station is bereft of people. A phone call to our prospective AirBnB host in the next place can only offer us reassurance that no matter what time we arrive he will be waiting. A generous spirit but not helpful in the moment. The shopkeeper, in the only open shop in the vicinity, reassures me that we are at the right station. There is no other station.
A woman wheeling a suitcase accompanied by her son is heading toward the station. She is Ukrainian and speaks some English. She knows about trains. She trawls the train schedules with us. Same conclusion. However, there is a Trenitalia office some distance away she says. We should have thought that the station office was actually 500 meters from the station. Time is marching on, so mild panic sets in. A jog to the office takes me to a window where a young man sits eagerly waiting to solve my problem. He is unemotional and focused on my dilemma, excellent traits under the circumstances. Much tapping on his keyboard yields an answer. This train does not exist! We have tickets on a ghost train. Our connection to the Intercity 723 at Villa San Giovanni is looking unlikely. However, all good train officials have a solution. This one is no exception. He has faced these dilemmas before, perhaps daily. I ask him to write the details down. It requires 2 trains which should link us up with the 723 for which we do have tickets. I don’t stretch the extremely cordial relationship by enquiring about the transferability of our tickets from the non -existent train. If challenged, I have extracted a semi-official document from our friendly official. In reality, it’s a scribbled note on a piece of cardboard. We exchange arrivedercis and my jog to the office has become a sprint back to the station.
Hands are waving at me as I approach. We are following the Ukrainian woman who knows about trains to platform 3. She also has a solution and it happens to be the same as the train official’s. We are in safe hands. It’s a short ride to Paola and we change trains with our accompanier and follow her again to Villa San Giovanni (VSG). First leg – no problem. The plan looks watertight.
The second leg of this journey has a conductor aboard. It has allocated seating. We have no seat allocation. In fact, we don’t have valid tickets. We sit in spare seats. The conductor walks the aisle checking tickets. We act like we belong in the seats and avoid eye contact. She passes us by several times. We must look honest! It would be too complicated to explain, even with my semi-official piece of cardboard.
The plan continues to work until an announcement is made about the onward journey of this train. It sows the seed of doubt about time sequences. We are due to catch the Intercity 723 from VSG only minutes after the arrival of this train. Where is the Ukrainian train expert when we need her? When I reluctantly approach the office of the conductor I was previously avoiding, she is elbow deep in paperwork. My presence is an interruption she does not need but she dutifully clarifies the arrival time of this train to my satisfaction. It can still work.
Some announcements are translated but many are left for non-Italian speakers to decipher the best way we can. Each incomprehensible announcement raises the tension a little. The next announcement in Italian, as far as I could tell, seems to indicate that the various carriages of this train are proceeding onto Sicily
but will be going to different destinations. That is, the train will be split. Furthermore, it announces that we are on the Intercity 723 train! The very train we are meant to catch at the next station! Now we are confused! This time the conductor takes longer to look up from her paperwork. I’m convinced she is trying to balance the number of passengers, and she has 3 more than she should. I try not to appear guilty. When I produce our onward ticket she confirms that we are indeed on the right train to reach Taormina. However, we are on the wrong carriage. We must make our way up to carriage 1 from carriage 4. But how are you on this train already when your tickets indicate you will be getting on at the next station? It’s a question I choose to ignore. and her paperwork takes precedence, thankfully. Making our way to carriage 1 is no small task as we cart our luggage up the aisles past the conductor who turns her head, and has no further interest in our journey. Her job is complicated enough.
Finally, we are safely ensconced in our seats in first-class, no less. Who knows how but we have managed to be on the right train, the Intercity 723, in the right seats and it is leaving on time. Thankyou Ukrainian woman, and Trenitalian train official. With reluctant thanks to our conductor who was last seen still baffled by her paperwork. The next leg will put us onto the ferry and onward to Taormina. But wait, there is one more announcement as slowly inch toward the bowels of the ferry. Welcome aboard customers for the Intercity 710 train for Siracusa. The 3 of us look at each other in disbelief!
But like I said, the system does work, even when it appears not to! Whatever happened to the 11:31 Regional or the Intercity 723? I’m leaving it to the conductor to work that out after she’s balanced the passenger log. And our glorious host, Marco, welcomed us at exactly the time the Intercity 723 should have taken us there, and did even if it did morph into the 710, and if it ever really existed! Perhaps it was all just a complicated dream and none of those things actually happened!
Intermingled amongst the announcements on their trains, Trenitalia makes frequent requests for customers to provide feedback or complaints about their experiences. Where to begin……?