In Messina we take a ferry to Villa San Giovanni, the mainland, and a train from there to Salerno. We drop our Volvo off in Messina.

Tindari

On the way to Messina I planned to visit Tindari, Home of a Greek-Roman archeological site.  It is also the home of a Cathedral of the Black Madonna.  The archeological sites interests me far more, though the legend of the Black Madonna is worth a read, here.  A restaurant owner also suggested we visit Montalbano Elicona for it’s monolithic rocks, but we do not have time for both.

Tindari’s legendary Sand Spit

The road to Tindari from Piraino is a slow one.  It is windy and in one place the main road is closed to do a mud slide.  The alternate road is what should be a one lane road used for two lanes of traffic.  Luckily that stretch of road is lightly travelled.  There are numerous tunnels and many areas where road work narrows an already narrow road.

The Coast Road to Tindari

Tindari sits atop a hill overlooking a bay and a legendary spit of land (see “Black Madonna” above)  Our NAV system took us right to the parking lot at the base of the hill.  A talkative fellow approached as I looked for the parking ticket kiosk.  “Parking here is free.  Do you want to take a bus to the top?  You should eat at “the Greek”  for lunch.  it’s the restaurant right over there.  It has very good food.  Where are you from?”  This guy was genuinely friendly and aside for being a barker for the restaurant, he was interesting to talk to while Ellen sorted out what she needed from our bags in the car.

We chose to walk to the top (why not, we’ve walked everywhere else?) and skipped the bus.  For the first half or two thirds of the hike up, there is no view.  You pas houses, some with inquisitive dogs.  Every now and then a local buzzes by.  The bus passed us once going up and again going back down.

Closer to the top a dramatic view opens up only to close out around the next bend.  Near the top we encountered the first row of vendors selling trinkets; some selling fruit and nuts.  It is hard to pass up a free sample.  Once you take a sample, the hook is set. If you say we’ll see you on the way down, they own you.  We did buy some nuts on the way down only to find the quality varied enormously from nut to nut.  My recommendation?  Avoid buying anything from these folks.  Get nuts and fruit from a supermercato.   We did not take photos of the vendors, we did not want to draw attention to ourselves.

Tindari’s Cathedral

Tindari’s Cathedral sits prominently atop the hill.  It is visible from miles around.  To me it is too modern to be interesting.  The piazza that fronts the church has a commanding view of the sea and Tindari’s famous spit of sand.  We lingered soaking in the sunshine dancing on the sea as a sailboat slowly drifted by below.  We were both hungry, but thought we’d check out the ruins first.

The walk to the ruins is along a short street lined with pizzerias and trinket vendors.  Both were tranquil; we were not accosted once here.  Like most things in Italy, you pay to visit the ruins.  The fee is small.  The money goes toward preservation and improvements.  You walk right into the top of the amphitheater.  The stone bench seats are fenced off.  The Greeks placed their theaters high in the hills and at the shore; close to their gods.  I think performances were for the gods more than for the audience.  Wasn’t a Roman Emperor a god?   Greek plays are performed in the theater to this day.  The amphitheater dates to the 4th century BC.

 

The Sicilians have let plans consume the amphitheater. I have no idea why.

Ancient Mosaic Tiles

The trail past the amphitheater takes you down to a road that leads to the ruins.   Inside the low walls to the left are nearly intact mosaics; works or art in themselves.  The Greek arches ahead are the remnants of the Basicila.  The City of Tindari was founded in about 400BC by Dionysus I, “the Tyrant of Syracuse”.  Only the ruins of the city remain today.

 

A Glass Urn from around 4 BC

A quick Bite

And a Birra

Messina ?

It was fun walking these ancient paths on a gloriously sunny day in Northern Sicily.  The views are stunning.  Hunger eventually got the better of us.  We went back to Restaurante Tyndaris.  We shared a beer and a heated Panini then headed off to Messina.  Now the GPS took us to the autostrada and we made good time to Messina.  There was no way to enter the street address in the nav system, Via XXVII Luglio 34, Messina.  What to do with XXVII?  We tried everything 26, XXVII, twenty six: nothing worked.  My trusty Italian phone took us right to the address!  Well almost, it has an accuracy issue and the version of google maps is horrendous.  I’ll check for an upgrade soon.

We found the address.  A V-shaped floor to ceiling glass wall with a  door, a series of buzzers, and nobody.  Out of my set of folders I pulled “Caroli Guest House” and called the owner.  The woman who answered in Italian, hesitated then passed the phone to her friend who spoke better English than my Italian.  They’d be right down.  In five minutes time, they were.  The apartment was exactly as presented online. It was clean, comfortable, and perfect for us to make connections with the ferry to Villa San Giovanni tomorrow to connect by train to Salerno.  The women were very helpful pointing out their favorite local restaurants (no, not family run), where the supermarket was, and where to catch the ferry across the Straits of Messina.

I left Ellen in the apartment and drove off to drop the car off at Europcar.  The NAV system took me right to their Messina office in a seedy industrial area.  The office was closed! Nobody was there and a sign read: open Saturdays 9:00 – 13:00. Monday-Friday stated hours,  Sunday was not mentioned.  Not Good! I would not be able to drop the car off until Monday?

Catania ?  Yes, Catania!

I called europcar.  The representative was not very sympathetic.  “You missed the drop-off time!”, well, yeah. “You can drop the car off Monday”, well, no.  “You could drop it off in Catania”, that’s not happening “What if I leave the car where it is” silence on the line for a heartbeat then, “It will be stolen.  Drop the car off in Catania, it is the best”.  I hung up, realizing that I probably didn’t check the drop-off hours. Crap.  I called again to see if I could get a more sympathetic ear.  Nope, I heard the same story: Catania. “It’s only 40 km away and you can take the bus back”  right.

I called Ellen, described the situation, and suggested that I’d drive to Catania and come back by bus.  She wanted to come along. OK, we were off to Catania’s airport to fine Europcar.  Trust is a funny thing.  That 40km estimate was 110km by our GPS.  It took an hour and a half to get to the airport.  Traffic wasn’t too bad, but it was going crazy fast with lots of trucks.  I was asked in a “white knuckle” sort of way to “please, slow down”. 

Ellen was great at spotting signs to Europcar.  I would not have found it so easily myself.  They accepted the car.  I asked where I might pick up a bus to Messina.  The first person I asked just made a “tsch” sound.  This is a typical Sicilian way of saying “it’s not going to happen” or “it didn’t happen”.  I had heard that just once before in one of the Montalbano episodes.  This chilled me.  We are now 110 km from the Messina to Villa San Giovanni ferry.  Not good.  You know the definition of insanity, right?  I asked another fellow, hoping for a different answer or at least not a “tsch”.

Fellow number two said, “I’m not sure, but most busses stop right in front of the airport, right over there (pointing toward who knows what over “there”).  By now Ellen and I are both starving.  All we had eaten today was a half sandwich.  We were subdued by this situation. There was no blame, no why didn’t you blah blah.  We resigned ourselves to finding a bus or train back to Messina and headed in “that general direction”.  Surprisingly, right over there was the main entrance to the airport AND a bunch of busses queued along the walkway.  With some difficulty we found a bus schedule that included Catania to Messina.  A bus would be leaving in an hour.  It was now about 19:30. Cool, we fount the biglietteria and purchased two “semplice”  tickets.   Now for some food.

The Best Pizza

Airport food is not the best, unless you happen to be in Catania. There was my favorite pizza place in Arlington Mass where I’d buy pizza by the slice after school.  The crust was done perfectly, with numerous very small spots of char on the bread, a fantastic combination of cheeses, and just the right amount of sauce.  I’ve had good pizza, bad pizza, home made pizza, “the best” pizza, but none has ever come close to that old Arlington pizza by the slice.  None, until now.  I bought a single slice of Margherita Pizza from Sfizio and was in heaven.  This was exactly how pizza should be.  The taste, doneness, texture, cheeses, sauce; all were perfect.  It made the evening’s disaster worth it (well not really, but at least something went better than planned). We ate though Ellen’s first choice was disappointing: all bread.  Her second choice was really good.

Messina !

We found the kiosk for the Messina bus, boarded, and took a ride back to Messina. Luck was with us.  The bus drove right by Carini Guest House.  The bus had been making random stops for other people, I hopped up and asked if he could stop for us right here.  I said this in Italian somehow.  The answer?  “no”  We went to the bus terminus, two blocks further down.  No Problem.

Back at Carini House, I check my notes and found that I had booked the train from Villa San Giovanni at 8:45 tomorrow morning.  To be safe we’d have to take the 7:20 ferry.  Counting back in time we set our alarms for 5AM.  It was now 1:30 AM.  Tomorrow would be a crazy day.