Lori and Troy do Europe 2025

Today is 73 and sunny. We are out the door at 9am and have a 1.5hr drive to Taranto to catch a train that leaves at 1:07pm. We need to drop off the rental car at Europcar and then try to get an Uber to the train station.

Driving in the city is always an experience and I am surprised that we have not seen 1 accident judging by the way people drive over here. The obstacles seem to be endless. There are cross walks with pedestrians that just walk out in front of you. There are bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles that have no rules to follow and just dart in and out of traffic. They will also buzz between the cars to get to the front of the line at a traffic signal. Then there are the road signs that seem to be non existent along with no painted lane lines. After that you have the car drivers. The expensive cars drive like they are on the Autobahn. The small cars act like motorcycles and squeeze in constantly. On the highway, which does have painted lane lines, they drive right down the center with the center lane lines centered on the front of their car. This doesn’t keep people from passing them though. Then there is the honking. They honk at everything and everyone. Which really sets me off. I am not an aggressive driver but the honking makes me one. This morning we got into our car and there was already someone honking at me to get out of the parking space so he could park. I didn’t even have time to put my seatbelt on and the freaking car wasn’t even started yet. I initially ignored the guy. Then he honked 2 more times at me. I threw open the door and turned see a wide eyed young guy looking at me in surprise! At that pointed I cooled down and realized that I think he was just letting me know that he was there. I guess my response would be, that is why I have a review mirror! Travel days already have me on high alert and that double horn raised the level to def con 4.

Apple Maps got us to the highway with no incidents, so now it is smooth sailing from here to the rental drop off. I had a good hour to chill out before we reached the city of Taranto. Lori doesn’t understand what I am going through and I can’t explain it to her.

We made it to Taranto and were immediately tossed into a 3 car, side by side, traffic jamb in 2 lanes of traffic. Motorcycles zipping in between everyone and cars trying to merge. I need to top off the car before I drop it off at the rental company. I was able to pull into 2 different stations and was not able to figure out how to get the pump to work. It is a central kiosk that you tap your pump number and pay. I went inside and asked and there was nobody behind the counter that spoke English. That is unusual but there was a customer that helped. I ultimately could not buy gas but watched several people work the machine with no problem. I finally gave in and decided to turn it in ¼ tank low. Then about 2 blocks from the drop off spot we passed one final station that was full service. Perfetto!

We dropped off the car with no problems. They called us a cab and we made it to the train station with about 1.5h to spare. This is a 6.5 hr ride on a city train with no WiFi and no food or drink. We decided to find a restaurant and get something for the train ride. Train stations are not usually in nice areas but we decided to venture out, suitcases and all. Prime targets! Lori found a couple of places that were closed so we kept pushing it. We found a restaurant where there should not be one. Sort of an oasis in an industrial district. We walked in a found a really nice helpful couple behind the counter. They ran the small deli. We had baked chicken with fried potatoes in butter. It was delicious!! I have been missing that meal from home. It was so good that I ordered another plate. We also had them make up 2 sandwiches for us and the total cost was $25 euro for everything. One of the cheapest and best meals since we arrived in Italy.

We walked back to the train station without incident and waited for the train to arrive. They only stop for about 3 min which is barely enough time for people to exit and enter. Of course our train car always seems to be at the opposite end of where we are standing. There were 2 legs to this trip and the first train was pretty decent but no bar car or WiFi. This time I was prepared when the ticket taker checked our tickets so I was pretty proud of that. It only took me 6 weeks to get it right. The second leg had a 50min layover so we tried to guess where our car would land in the platform. We chose the middle of the platform which should be close to our #8 car. Nope, the train pulled up and it was the first car in the front of the train. We began to run for it. The whole time Lori is yelling just get on, just get on! I like to enter my assigned car so that I don’t have to push the luggage through all of the packed, potentially sickly cars. As long as people are exiting the train then we should be safe. We made it on the car and found our seats. Lori glared at me in some sort of disappointment, disgust or hatred. I’m not sure which but she did say that she doesn’t like this version of me.

We arrived at a train stop before our final destination of Messina. Messina is in Sicily which is across the water from our location. Most everyone exited the train. We sat there for several minutes and started to get worried. How was the train going to get across the bay? Then Lori asked if we are supposed to get off the train? I kind of panicked so I got up and went to check with the train personnel. I peaked out of the train door and saw the conductor standing at the door of the engine. I asked if we were supposed to get off the train for Messina and get on the ferry that was sitting next to the train. He said yes. In his defense he did not speak very good English. I told him to not move the train, I am going to get my stuff and exit the train. I re-entered the train and yelled to Lori that we have to get off the train. She was already gathering up her things. This caused a bit of a panic on the train and people started packing up their stuff in haste. We exited the train with all of our luggage and then I saw a train representative outside of the train. I verified with her that we needed to get on the ferry, correct? She spoke good English and said NO the train is going on the ferry. We thought that we heard something about that but how were they going to put a train on a ferry. Was this another communication breakdown? We got back on and nervously took our seats. Once that train starts moving you’re stuck until the next stop. We looked out the window as it started in the opposite direction. Oh crap! Then we watched as they loaded us and the whole train on to a ship. They opened the doors to the train once we were inside to let us walk around and take pictures. It was crazy to think that they were capable of doing something like this! We crossed the channel to Sicily and the train exited the boat. This boat carried 8-10 train cars!

We exited at the Messina Centrale Station which was a 2 min ride from the ferry boat. As we walked down the platform the Polizia was stopping Americans and asking for identification. It was strange because there was also Security checking identification at the beginning station back Taranto. We produced our Passports and were cleared without issue. This is the only time in nearly 6 weeks of travel that this has happened. We exited the station and a cab was there waiting. 1 mile later and $25 cab fare we arrived at our hotel. It is a nice simple hotel room with A/C and breakfast in the morning. Perfetto!