Wander & Wonder: Short stories on the road IV.

Hi all! Apologies for being a little absent - December has been the kind of chaos we’ll never quite get used to. But here we are: at the final recap of this Italian adventure. It’s hard to believe I’ve written four blogs about it… though honestly, I feel like I could write a thousand more. That said, new ideas are brewing, and it’s only fair to let them shine. So let’s dive in, shall we?

Midnight express.

Last time we checked, we were ready to leave Napoli after a Maradona frenzy. The next leg of the trip involved a night train - something I’d never done before.

In case you were wondering, in order to move from Napoli to Catania (Sicily) you need not only to travel a few kilometers but to actually navigate through the Messina strait by ferry. Luckily, this time seasickness was not an issue! First, because we crossed at around 3 am and I was happy sleeping, and second because we never left the train. This curious trip includes a maneuver where the whole train gets on the ferry to cross the strait and then continues its journey by land. The logistics are an incredible thing to see, but I recommend watching a YouTube video because I was snoring at the time. 

The experience of sleeping on a train was not the best unless you paid for first class. For us, it was a small cabin, a rickety ladder to get to the top bunk, and the constant feeling of falling, each time the train made a stop. Did I sleep? Yes. But that speaks volumes about my ability to sleep anywhere, not about the commodities. But hey! we did it for the adventure and arrived early morning in Catania.

Could Italy be more beautiful?

Catania served mainly as our base to visit Taormina - a city I must return to someday. By now you must think I keep repeating myself with tales of picturesque cliffside towns, but this one was special. The cherry on top is the old greco-roman amphitheater. Imagine a structure like the Colosseum, only smaller, perched atop a mountain with panoramic views of the Sicilian coastline. At sundown, light streams through its columns in the most breathtaking way, as if it were designed specifically for golden hour. To top that, this space is still used for concerts and theatre shows! Though we didn’t see a show, a brave tourist treated us to an impromptu opera, making the moment unforgettable.

From there, we headed to Agrigento to visit the Valley of the Temples: a full esplanade with three main constructions, amazingly preserved from a time around 580 BC. This archaeological site lets you experience walking through these streets and temples dedicated to multiple Greek gods. And the best part: it gets beautifully lighted by night! Not like others…

Ok, what’s the deal with Pompeii?

Let me rewind a bit to finally tell you about Pompeii. The site is huge, and we knew we weren’t going to be able to see it all, so we went at around 4 pm to see “as much as we can”. It is important to mention that, at that time of the year, it started to get dark around 6 pm. But we thought we were ok, since “surely the ruins are illuminated”. Well… they aren’t.

Don’t get me wrong, Pompeii takes your breath away. When I say that is huge, I mean it is a whole city. You can walk through the streets, and explore houses, stores, temples, and government buildings… it is absolutely amazing and has not yet been fully excavated. But, it doesn’t have ANY lights. AT ALL. When the sun started to go down that day, we kept on walking sure that some lighting would turn on, but ended up using our phone lights and walking with extra care not to trip on a stone and fall.

On one hand, it really downgraded the experience and forced us to leave early. On the other side, this Aquarius-paranormal-lover had a blast (and a lot of jump scares). It was the perfect setting to discuss conspiracy theories and take some spooky photos. So, all wasn’t lost.

Time to go back home.

That anecdote marks the end of this Italian adventure. I want to thank you again for coming with me in this recap exercise, which was more about writing and remembering an amazing trip. I don’t know about you, but sometimes for me, it’s hard to remember the good parts at the end of the year. And even though 2024 has had its challenges, this is definitely one of the highlights.

A very special thanks to mum and dad, for letting me be part of this.

I’ll see you on the next adventure.

Ce.