To Siracusa

April 3, 2023

For a simple day with a short two hour train ride to Siracusa, today was surprisingly interesting and worth remembering. It began with an excellent breakfast at our B&B and an extended visit with our host Katia. We’re the only guests this morning (and, as I said, her first guests of the year), so she had plenty of time to chat with us about a variety of topics - the best months to visit Sicily (April and October; but April is really best); favorite towns (Cefalu in particular); and the weather this year (there’s been a prolonged drought, and last night was the first real rain of the year). As challenging as it was to find our way up here, Il Duomo Relais was a fine stay for us.

Another shot from the front door, as we stepped out to dinner last night.

In the small dining area. Its walls are lined with Katia’s paintings.

The Ragusa train station is over two miles away, in the upper town. Unless we want to skirt the city and climb up on the highway, the only route not involving a zillion stairs is the same serpentine we biked down yesterday. It’s not too steep, and even though it’s narrow and has a few blind hairpin turns there’s little traffic and feels safe enough - the few cars that pass us are appropriately slow and cautious.

And it’s an amazing short ride, one I’m happy to get a second pass at, one worth a second video.

After dropping back down from our room we double back and approach the Duomo from below. It’s all uphill from here to the train station.

Looking up at Ragusa. The direct route goes more or less straight up, on steep stairs that cut across the meanders. When we arrived at our room last night, Katia’s husband got out his phone to show us a video of their 12 year old son riding his bike down those stairs.

As we weave our way uphill we pass beneath the ornate balconies of Nicastro Palace. As we bike past, the leader of a tour group is casting a laser at the various faces supporting the balconies and describing them to her group.

Rounding a switchback. Ragusa must be an interesting place to live, with only this single route connecting the upper and lower levels unless you take to the stairs.

And one more. Why not? It’s an excuse to break the climb.

In Ragusa (the upper town), nearing the top. It’s pretty much a straight, level shot to the station from here.

Video sound track: Adagio, by Lara Fabian

We check out of our room around ten and our train doesn’t leave until two, so we have about three hours to kill once we arrive at the stations. There’s a nice small plaza in front with benches, so I hang out there while Rachael goes on an exploratory walk for about an hour.

Rachael returned with a few photos, plus scouting information on the nearby bars and cafes.

From Rachel’s walk. If we’d stayed a second day, there’s a nice walk up that ravine Rachael could have taken on the layover.

By the time Rachael returns, it’s clouded over and turned cool and windy so we roll our bikes inside the station to keep warm. It’s a small, unattended station with no facilities at all, so we take turns going down to the cafe Rachael spotted for a snack lunch and access to their services.

As our departure time nears, we carry our bikes across the track to platform two, where our train is due to depart. I’m worried about it, because I saw the other one arrive two hours ago. It’s tiny and disgorged many apparent day trippers coming up from Siracusa. It won’t be a shock if we’re rejected boarding with the bikes. We could end up trying to find a taxi. While we wait we game out possibilities. One is that we can get one but not two bikes on the train. In that case Rachael will take the train and wait for me at the hotel, since it would probably be easier to find a taxi that can hold one bike than two. I hand her passport, so she’ll have it to check in at the hotel if this occurs.

The bikes are on platform two, ready for loading. Hopefully they’ll get on.

There are two different lines that pass through Ragusa: the coast line, between Gela and Syracusa; and an interior run that ends in Caltanassetta at the crest of the island and connects to a line down to Palermo. Perversely, both trains arrive and depart every two hours during the day, at exactly one minute apart. The timing complicates things, and it worries us when a lot of passengers start showing up until we see they’re all clustering on platform one, apparently bound for the interior.

At a few minutes before the trains arrive, all those passengers suddenly cross the tracks and move over onto platform two with us. I look up and see that both trains are due to arrive on platform two now, apparently single threading. Ours is now posted as five minutes late, so we suppose this will work.

The inland-bound train comes and goes, swallowing everyone on the platform but ourselves and one other. Suddenly, about two minutes before our train arrives, the station attendant signals us to rush across the tracks to the other platform. I look up at the departure board, and our train is now arriving on track one! In a near panic we hurriedly carry our panniers and my bike across the track (there’s no underpass), and the attendant carries the other bike.

Then, in a fortuitous move that saves our entire tour, Rachael looks up and sees that I’ve left my rucksack (with my passport) behind on the other platform. She runs across, retrieves it, and returns just before our train arrives.

The train really is tiny - two short cars, with no apparent spot to put the bikes. The train’s behind schedule, so the female attendant gestures us to hustle as Rachael tries to board with all four panniers so I can start handing folded bikes up to her. In a second, heart-stopping near-catastrophe in as many minutes, one of the panniers slips from her grip. She doesn’t see this, but it falls into the gap between the train and platform, protected from falling onto the tracks beneath the train only because it’s barely thick enough to get wedged in the gap. Yikes! With a sick feeling I quickly reach for it, half-expecting to see it slip through the gap before I get to it.

We get the bikes on board, and the doors close behind us and the delayed train starts moving immediately. The attendant indicates that the train is too small and bikes aren’t permitted, but what’s done is done so she shrugs her shoulders and indicates that we should slide them between the seats. Phew!

We’re looking at the entire train. By the time we arrive in Siracusa the train is filled to capacity. We’re lucky it was all but empty when we boarded, or we’d have never gotten on.

In Siracusa, looking back at our tiny train.

Two hours later we arrive in Siracusa, reassemble everything, and start walking to our hotel only a four minute, 400 meter walk away according to our phone map. Twenty minutes later we finally arrive, after three or four false starts down one wrong street after another. We arrive twenty minutes before the hotel shuts down for the day.

Quite the day! And it’s not done yet; but that’s enough excitement for the moment. We’ll have a look at our blitz tour of Siracusa in a separate post.

Ride stats today: 3 miles, 500’; for the tour: 347 miles, 26,200’

Today's ride: 3 miles (5 km)
Total: 347 miles (558 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	12
Comment on this entry	Comment	12

Suzanne GibsonWaiting and boarding the train sounds like a scene from "Les Vacances de M. Hulot"! But not so funny.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Rich FrasierSicily doesn't do trains very well. Good job making that work! I would have been completely stressed out.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonMister Hulot! Thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite films. I think I was still back in college when my first wife and I saw it.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierYes, stressed out is about right. I think I’m supposed to be avoiding those heart-stopping moments.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Rich FrasierTo Scott AndersonYeah, that crossed my mind. If anything is going to trigger an "event", it would seem like those moments of panic would. Glad you came through OK.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesHow do you two manage to pack so much adventure into just one day? Well done on your successful journey.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesWe don’t seek it out, that’s for sure. We’re just lucky it all worked out this time. Pretty small potatoes compared to some of your hair-raisers lately though!
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Tricia GrahamTravelling by train with bikes is probably the most stressful and Duffy part of any cycle tour
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Susan CarpenterTraveling with bikes on trains never fun, but in addition to the usual anxiety you added 1) last minute platform changes, 2) running across the tracks to retrieve a passport just as the train is arriving, and 3) dropping your panniers nearly onto the track while boarding. An increase in stress levels about three orders of magnitude!
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Janice BranhamSeems to me your strong partnership was a big key to prevailing on a terrible awful no good very bad train day. Congratulations. By the way, what was the soundtrack to Rachel's video of your ride to the station? Loved it.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Janice BranhamThat’s really true, Janice. We work really well together in crises, after years of practice. Thanks for pointing out that I omitted the sound track. It’s been added.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Tricia GrahamYou’re right. Even the rides that go as expected are stressful. Our ride leaving Syracuse went just fine, but we were both worn out by the end. Part of the stress comes for worrying about what might go wrong, even if it doesn’t.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago