Quick stop in Messina

We made it! Phew! It wasn’t all pretty, but it wasn’t awful!

We got up at 4:45 a.m., just as our Americans were all snuggled in 🙂 It was 37 degrees oh my goshhhh. Mike tried the “you’re from Michigan” card this morning, but I reminded him I was actually born in North Carolina.

Train 1 left at 6:05 a.m. And it was heated, so nice! Not many people on it. That got us to Pompeii, yes, where we were yesterdayyyyyyy. Hmmmmm. From Pompeii we had to go to a different train station. We were at a local train station and we needed a regional train line. We could take a bus, or walk just 22 minutes so Mike said, “why take the bus?!” Why indeed. I could think of several reasons, but we walked.

It was dark but the little signs of life made me feel better. Joggers, dog walker, delivery trucks, bird chirping. Fun fact! I just read an article that people who hear birds chirping report feeling better for hours!

It was kinda bleak for a minute for us, I’ll admit it. Mike had planned this all out and we were supposed to take the train at 8:08 a.m. to Salerno. We bought 2 tickets for our second train at the window. Multiple trains are coming in and going to Salerno but it’s hard to know which station they end up at. The ticket girl waved at us and said, “Look at me.” She pointing to a train. “Go. Take that train.” So we did.

Mike was sure we were going to end up at the wrong place. I was feeling like I didn’t have enough information. So……..we each took a cold walk while the other had coffee and stayed with our stuff.

A church door was open right there by the station so I walked in. After a few minutes of sitting with a half dozen other people, a bell tinged and a little service started. Right there on a Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. I prayed for grace for me and Mike and prayed for all the people in Turkey and Syria. They feel so close to us here. I thought how can I worry about cold or the wrong train.

Mike was correct that it didn’t make sense our train was leaving on the same platform as another just 9 minutes before. Sure enough, they made a last minute announcement our 3rd train was moved to platform 2. Luckily Mike understood it in Italian. Not that big a deal, but the trains don’t stay long and changing platforms means going down the stairs and under the tracks and up the stairs. We easily found Car 2, except there was no Row 19. There was a girl though, and she said we were in Car 5. Turns out the painted numbers are irrelevant–you have to go by the taped on paper numbers.

So now we were running 3 cars up but soon were in our heated train with plugs for charging and a nice quiet lady in the seat facing us. Phew–you gotta hope you get good neighbors because this trip was 4 hours.

We rolled along the coast and often there would be beauuuuutiful water on our right and mountains on our left. Again there were acres of farmland. I saw people working in the fields today. There were people walking through a vineyard. I saw a dozen people planting some type of seeds by hand in a plowed field. Some of the olive trees or grapes were on like steps going up the side of a mountain.

And sometimes, just like in Rome, there would be ancient ruins just right there.

Sorry for the rotten pictures. The windows on this train were pretty dirty and of course we were going maybe 50 mph.

We got to the toe of the boot in Italy and I was sooooo excited for the next part: Our train was going to cross the water on a ferry boat!!! I had learned about this months ago. So when we got to the end of the line our train stopped, of course. We waited in the station patiently and passengers milled about the train. I could see a train out our window so I watched to see if maybe they were going first. I saw a guy hook up our train to a huge electric cable. Occasionally we would adjust a bit back and forth. I could feel the rumbling of the train so I knew it would be soon–Yay!

Finally I decided to check the map AND…………our blue dot was already on the OTHER side of the water! We had in fact been on a moving ferry the whole time! I told Mike I felt like I slept through the best part lol! I thought of the first time Todd flew on a plane. He was 2 years old and sitting on my lap and as we were about to land he said, “When are we gonna fly?” So wow, yep, we are on the island of Sicily!

We walked around the somewhat bedraggled city of Messina. It is on a grid pattern of streets and sidewalks and seems pretty tame. There were many dessert shops and not that many restaurants opened until 7:30 p.m. so………I’m sorry to say…….we ate at KFC aghhhhh I admit it! It was fine like at home but no cole slaw haha!

So tomorrow we take the train to Palermo where we expect chaos and confusion. There we hope to find some Undiemes. Mike great grandparents, Guiseppi and Providenzia Undieme, came to the USA from Palermo, Sicily in 1912 with their two children. Mike’s grandpa, Giacomo Undieme, was born in Detroit in 1916. We understand there are a lot of Undiemes still here, so we will be on the lookout!