Day 54 - To Reggio Calabria

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

I had fun with trains today.  As I was leaving my hotel I got a message from Trenitalia saying they were very sorry but there wouldn't be a first class carriage on my train to Reggio Calabria and I'd have to slum it in 2nd class.  However, when the train pulled into the station there was a 1st class carriage so we all piled on.  Only to be later thrown off and sent to the back of the train.  Apparently the air conditioning wasn't working.

That was only a minor hiccup.  What was a much bigger issue was I got another message to say we are so very sorry but there is going to be a train strike on Friday from 9am to 5pm.  That is the day I'm supposed to be heading from Reggio Calabria to Lamezia Terme to visit my cousins.  The best information I could find was the the local, Regionale trains almost certainly won't be running but most of the long distance fast trains should be running.  I had a ticket on one of those.  However, "most of" and "should be" sounded a little too vague for my liking. 

Even if the fancy trains are running the question is how crowded will they be?  I have vivid memories of catching a train from Lamezia Terme to Venice back when we visited the rellies when I was a teenager (40+ years ago!).  It was the middle of August.  I don't remember if there had been a strike or if it was just a very busy day of the year.  However, even though we had reserved seats, when the train showed up we couldn't even get on.  It was just too full.  An hour or 2 later another train arrived and we forced our way onto that.  However, we couldn't get seats.  It was one of those trains with compartments off a long corridor.  We spent the whole journey (8+ hours) standing in the corridor.  It was not fun.  It must have been hell on earth for poor Dad as he was recovering from bronchitis at the time.  I don't fancy repeating that experience, even for a short journey.  Instead,  I asked my cousin if she wanted me to show up on Thursday night or Saturday morning instead.  She opted for Thursday so I'll be cutting my visit here short and leaving here late tomorrow afternoon.  

Getting from Sicily to Calabria by train was an interesting experience.  Once the train arrived in Messina it was divided into 2 pieces, while the passengers were still all on board, and then driven onto the ferry.  The process was repeated once we reached the other side, although we could get out and walk around the ferry while at sea.  I couldn't get over how close Sicily is to the mainland.  When we got on the ferry I looked across the water at what I thought was the other side of the bay.  It wasn't.  It was the mainland.  We spent more time taking the train apart and putting it on the ferry and then doing the reverse on the other side than we did actually sailing across the Strait of Messina.  It turns out it is only about a 7.5km distance.  For comparison, when someone is daft enough to swim the English channel they have to swim 33km.

I got to my hotel here, Hotel Medinblu, about 4pm.  I normally would have just spent the rest of the day ambling about and getting my bearings.  However, since I'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon I had to hit some sites instead.  One good thing about the lunchtime pause is that most places are open much later than they would be in Australia.  Usually closing time at museums here is 7pm.

I started by heading out to the best gelateria as claimed by the hotel receptionist.  However, when I got there there wasn't one school group of children there, there were two!  Why are they following me around?  I didn't bother waiting and just went for a walk along the seashore.  I was sure I could get something there but I was wrong.  There are many cafes and bars on the beach but they are all gearing up for the summer season and are undergoing renovations.  

Gelati-less, I left the beach and headed to the Bergamot Museum.  This is a plant in the citrus family which is heavily cultivated in this area.  Its oils (from the skin) and juice have many uses - cosmetics, medicines, food and dye fixing, amongst other things.  It turns out the museum isn't so much a museum as a club house/convention centre for people who are mad about bergmots.  A friendly woman showed me around.  Her English was worse than my Italian but we managed.  The sad bit was, while I could understand most of what she was trying to tell me, I didn't think of anything to say to her until after I'd left.  My brain just freezes.  She tried to give me one of the fruits but I was able to explain I couldn't take it back to Australia with me.  Other than that my conversation was limited to "yes", "I understand" and "wow".  

After this visit I went to the Aragonese Castle.  It is the remnants of a large fortress from the 9th centure, so it actually predates the rule of the kings from Aragon.  It has been rebuilt, modified, shaken by earthquakes and renovated many times since it was first built so there is really only one tower left.  I particularly liked the comment about how a large chunk of it fell down and had to be demolished after the repairs made in 1986.  It is mostly used as a really cool exhibition space these days.

I climbed to the top (only 4 floors) to see the view over the city.  The city sprawls as the population is around 200,000.  However, where I'm staying is at one end of the main street.  The station is at the other.  This main street is essentially pedestrainised and all the surroundings streets are one-way.  Crossing the road here is easy!  There are still tourists here but it is very much a 3rd tier tourist destination, unlike Siracusa.  This is what I saw as I was leaving Siracusa.  It must have arrived late last night or early this morning.  I left at the right time.

For dinner I went to a place called Le Vie del Gusto that was recommended by my hotel.  It serves traditional Calabrian dishes.  It turns out they don't have a written menu.  You just discuss with the waiter was you like and what they have available.  The owner recommended I start with a plate of traditional Calabrese antipasti so of course I said yes.  But then they brought me all this!

I asked for some of the house red wine and they bought me half a litre!  The antipasti was delicious so I ate it all.  For primi I had the recommended stroncatura (a local version of spaghetti) with a sauce of olive, capers, almonds, cherry tomatoes and breadcrumbs.  It would have been delicious too but it also had raisins in it which made it vaguely sweet which I don't like.  I'm not sure if he didn't tell me about the raisins or if I just didn't catch it (this whole conversation was in Italian).  It's a shame because it is an excellent restaurant but this dish just wasn't to my taste.  I only ate half of it and we both just laughed when he suggested a secondi or perhaps a dessert.  When I went to pay, I braced myself for a high bill but it was one of the cheaper meals I've had.  From looking at the receipt it seems I didn't get charged for the mineral water or the wine and there wasn't a cover charge.  I would have said somone goofed but it was the owner himself who gave me the bill.