And today’s map. We started at nearly sea level, climbed up past Ragusa – a breathtaking section with gorgeous gorges*, then went down again to sea level at Gela, along the coast to Licata, then way up again to Caltanisetta, and from there down via Xirbi to sea level. Spectacular tour, this! The difference between the very dry south coast and the fertile north is markable.

* Oh, yes, he did!

G’day! Today I am trying something completely new: I will be using only one train for the entire day. It’s still a nine hour ride, mind.

But first, have a picture of a man on a horse.

We’re going on a boat trip!

For the day Intercitys, they now just keep the locomotives on with the trains which speeds up operations quite a bit. Once your train has been pushed onto the boat, you can leave and wander around. Or not. Up to you, really.

We’ve arrived in Villa San Giovanni exactly one minute early. Now just five more hours mostly north.

(The chatty Australians are going to Salerno. Guess it’s going to be a headphone afternoon.)

The railway up the southern Tyrrhenian coast quite spectacular. Glad the night trains were all sold out.

(The sun is too low for train window photos, so you’ve got to go see it for yourself.)

Almost on time in Napoli Centrale. We were a couple minutes early but got held up entering the station.

No map today since it is all very straightforward: Along the north coast of Sicily from Palermo to Messina and then along the west coast of the mainland from Villa San Giovanni to Napoli.

The ride quality of the train is as you would expect from a train designed jointly by Bombardier and Ansaldo-Breda. The suspension is very rough, lot of jittering and bumping and there’s a rather loud drone from the rolling of the wheels.

I guess the rule still stands: if you want smooth trains, go for Siemens or original Alstom.

“We inform passengers that a check by railway police is now in progress.”

Trenitalia surely is pulling out all the stops on this last train. We left Bologna 10 minutes late, had a long slow order, had to step aside for an Italo train, arrived in Verona 33 minutes late, and are now standing here.

Aaand we are off 36 minutes late. Transfer time in Brennero is 37 minutes.

Half an hour later is the Eurocity which I assume I can use without surcharge from Brennero?

I mean, I kind of asked for an hour to walk around. But it is dark and raining. (Rain. I forgot about rain.)

Be careful what you ask for.

This gives me time to talk about the bell.

In many Italian stations, a bell starts ringing a while before a train is due to arrive. It’ll keep ringing for ages and then suddenly stops and seconds later (or longer, depending on the station) the train will come around the corner. Which is quite practical if you want to photograph the train but that’s probably not the purpose.

My theory is that the bell is ringing while an entry signal is green and thus stops when the train passes the signal.

Good morning from a world where there are self-service coffee machines in hotel breakfast rooms.

Today’s adventure: get back home. Let’s see if I make it or give up somewhere, spend another night, and roll directly into the office tomorrow morning.

Sighs and closes the ViaggaTreno tabs. The what, you ask? http://viaggiatreno.it/ has all of Trenitalia’s real-time information. It shows current and upcoming disruptions, station departure and arrival boards, and delay information for trains. The latter is automatically updated whenever a train passes a scheduled point (including junctions and such) and is thus quite accurate.

Disclaimer: Only works for Trenitalia, Trenord, and Trenitalia TPER trains on state railway infrastructure.