Listen to the Locals

We were planning to take a train from Trapani to Palermo (on the north side of Sicily) yesterday. We mentioned to Antonio (our B and B owner) and several locals and you would have thought they had said we are going to take a three legged mule.

"Noooo. Train is bad. Takes too long. Take bus - only 90 minutes."

The Train was about 2 1/2. Well, we had booked it quite a while back so we thought what the hey.

We boarded our tiny train just before 12 (seriously it was just a few cars) and we were off.Sort of anyway. We stopped at quite a few stations and I swear for traffic and for no reason at all (or that I could tell).

I lookedout the window and saw “Marsala.” Wait a minute, that’s due south. We were due north.

At the next stop “Castelvetrano.” Everyone got off. The station was quiet and the surrounding grape vineyards quite serene, conjuring up Godfather flashbacks again.

Steph and I found out the train towards Palermo was in three hours and we were in fact going the right way. Apparently you go in a circle to get to Palermo.

We settled in on a bench and had a great time reading and people watching. Policemen and Station managers were fighting in Italian and gesticulating wildly --- two minutes later they were friends again and laughing together. A German Sheppard wandered about eyeing my train station pizza. A cool Sicilian Breeze kept us comfortable.

The men came to know that first, we didn’t speak Italian and second, we were going to Palermo. They didn’t really interact with us (it was entertaining enough just to watch this little movie play out in front of us) but they made sure we got on the right train and helped us with our bags.

A couple hours into our second train ride the conductor comes through and starts rapidly talking to the passengers – we were straining to understand one word of his Italian.

We then come to a stop and he smiles at us and says “Change.”

Everyone gets off crosses the tracks and about ten minutes later and gets on a one car train to Palermo (or so I hoped). Finally, we pull into our station – which did not say Palermo (and why would it) --- the conductor informed us we were at our destination.

Exhausted we hauled our luggage off – one of the passengers hung back to make sure we were safely off.

So yeah, a 90 minute journey took about 71/2-8 hours.

So when in Sicily 1. Take the bus 2. Listen to the locals. 3. Know that the best way from Point A to Point B is NOT a straight line. 4. Finish a long journey with Sicilian pizza, it makes everything better.

Picture by Jaya Bird: Our train stop for about three hours.