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Monday, October, 10, 2022
We’ve been to Italy several times but this will be our first foray into Sicily. We’re very excited.
I had asked our host to arrange a taxi to pick us up around noon. Instead of doing what I asked she gave me the phone number for a local cab company. Experience shows that making these calls rarely works out well when you don’t speak the language. I managed to find another company that takes reservations via WhatsApp. We’ve had good luck doing that in the past. WhatsApp is widely used by all sorts of service companies across Europe.
We have tickets on the 1:34 pm train to take us from Reggio Calabria to Villa Saint Giovanni. From there we have tickets on another “train” to Catania. We assume this really means a ferry because there are no tunnels and no bridges across the straight of Messina. We had expected to take a ferry to another train, but you never know. In any event we have way too much luggage to swim for it.
The train to Villa Saint Giovanni was really slow, we had only 20 minutes to make our connection, and we were worried we’d be late. It was literally inching along at about 5 MPH for several station stops. Finally it picked up speed for the last two stations and we made our destination just three minutes late. Normally there is an elevator to take you from the tracks to the lower level and then another elevator to take you to the main station. This station only had stairs. I took the heavy bags and sent Deborah head with instructions to ask someone where we had to go. When I got there she said, “track four”. Seriously? A train? That had to be a mistake. I showed the tickets to the booth clerk and he repeated, “track four”.
We hauled our luggage down two flights and back up another two flights to get to track four. The sign on the tracks was very confusing. We asked some passengers where they were going and they said, “Palermo”. At least that was in Sicily. We ran towards the head of the train to car two. Along the way we found a conductor and asked if this train went to Cantania. He said, “Yes”. We found car two and settled into our seats. We had no idea what was going to happen.
Soon the train started moving – backwards – very slowly. Eventually we started forward and started switching tracks towards the shore. The train was being loaded onto a ferry! We’d joked about that possibility but never thought for a second that it would become a reality. The first four cars went onto the boat and then the second four cars were detached and came up along side us. Everyone was getting off the train. In for a penny…
Upstairs on the ferry there was a lovely lounge with a snack bar and comfortable seats with a view. We bought a couple of sodas and settled in for the ride. An announcement said that the crossing should take about 45 minutes. When we arrived in Messina we got back on the train and soon found ourselves waiting at the main train station. We realized that the last four cars of our train were on another track, which said, “Palermo”. Ours said, “Syracuse”. It’s a damn good thing we were in the right car because otherwise we’d never have gotten where we were supposed to be. What a crazy experience.
After waiting another 20 minutes our train finally departed to the South. We breathed a sigh of relief. Loading the train onto the boat took a good 30 minutes, the crossing 45, getting off the boat another 15, and sitting in the station waiting to leave was another 20 minutes. Now we know why a relatively short trip takes so long.
Once we arrived in Catania we took a taxi from the station to our new apartment and dragged our luggage up to the third floor. We’ve got to start booking ground floor apartments or at least buildings with elevators in the future. By the time we settled in it was about 6:30 pm. We did a little exploring and found that our apartment is just around the corner from Piazza del Duomo. A really nice location. We found a restaurant with an interesting menu in the piazza and waited for the waiter. The menu he gave us was completely different. Apparently the restaurant was closed but the cafe was open. We ordered an arancini with cheese and spinach, a puff pastry with meat and cheese, and a calzone with meat, cheese and sauce. It was all quite delicious. We ended the meal with some gelato. It, too, was excellent. The cafe had some delicious looking pastries and cookies, too. We’ll try them again on another day. In total dinner cost €16.00. The restaurant had all sorts of pasta dishes for €7.00. We’re going to love Sicily!
Tuesday, October, 11, 2022
We started the day with some standup coffee, or at least we tried. When we ordered a couple of pastries, too, we were told to have a seat and it would all be brought it us. We hate paying the service charge. We each got a cornetto to go with our coffee. It’s an Italian croissant. Mine was filled with cream and Deborah’s apricot. Unlike the ones we’ve had before these were much more like French style croissants. They were very good. When the bill came there was no service charge. €6.00 for a caffe (what we call espresso), a cappuccino, and two cornetti. Not bad.
Unlike so many of our previous apartments where the hosts had coffee, salt, pepper, napkins, garbage bags, dish towels, etc., this place had nothing. Google identified what was supposed to be a large supermarket where we could stock up on essentials. Along the way we found a huge outdoor market that stretched for blocks. We bought some fresh fish, fruits and vegetables and many staples like milk, eggs, and bread in the store fronts in the area. It was more like entertainment than shopping.
After taking our groceries to the apartment we went back to Piazza del Duomo and visited the Basilica Cattedrale di Sant’Agata. Saint Agatha is the patron saint of the city. It’s a large, Romanesque style church. The original building dates from around the 10th Century AD. It suffered significant damage from earthquakes and fires in the 12th Century. In 1693 most of the church was destroyed in an earthquake. The present structure dates from the early 18th Century. Columns were replaced with double pillars for additional strength.
Shortly after entering we saw an elaborate burial with musical notes. When we looked closer we realized that this was the final resting place of the famous opera composer Bellini, who was born in Catania in 1801. There are a couple of places where you can see the original floor and some column footings as well. They appear to be about two feet below the current floor. Overall, it’s a very pretty church with decorations that span many different periods.
Just across the street we also visited Chiesa della Badia di Sant’Agata. It’s part of an Abbey dedicated to Saint Agatha. The rather small church is round with a large dome. Altars with statues of various saints can be found along the circumference. We took notice of an advertisement for a performance of the Mozart Requiem and a concert of varied opera arias posted outside.
The Abbey lead to a long Main Street with high end shops. We decided to investigate. One of the first things we found was a pastry/gelato shop that intrigued us. When we went in we found these lovely “casata cakes”. We just had to try one. The rather rich cake was made with ricotta cheese and marzipan and it was covered in a thick white icing. It was amazing. Finally, sickingly sweet desserts.
Further down we ran into a couple of other churches, Piazza Bellini with a statue of the composer, and then the ruins of a Roman Amphitheater from the 1st Century AD. Only a small part of the structure had been uncovered because it had been built over. It had been in use until the 5th Century. In the 12th Century many of its stones had been repurposed to build the Duomo.
Just off the main road we found a restaurant for lunch. It was 12:30 pm and we were the only ones there. We were a little nervous but during the time we were there the place filled up with locals. We had the pasta carbonara and rigatoni with ricotta and eggplant. Instead of pancetta or guanciale the carbonara was made with ham. €16.00 for lunch in a nice restaurant. That’s the kind of math I like.
Deborah cooked the fish we bought for dinner. It was baccala. Normally baccala is salted and dried cod but this looked fresh so we assumed that something had been lost in the translation. After cooking it was rather tough and had an odd texture. Neither of us ate it. At least we had some salad that we purchased that morning. And we had a nice dessert. We’d gone back to last night’s restaurant and gotten some cookies. One was marzipan topped with a cherry. The other was marzipan topped with apricot jam. They made us forget all about the fish.
After dinner we bought tickets to the performance of the Mozart Requiem. The concert will be held in the Duomo. We purchased tickets online for €10.00 a piece. We’ve seen it performed over and over again and have even played it a few times. It’s one of our favorites. The last time we went to see it performed was in 2018 in Budapest. It’s been too long 😎.