4. Milazzo, Sicily

I took the train from Catania to Messina and admired the beautiful coastal view along the way.  After three hours of travel, I don’t think I saw any land that didn’t have a building on it! 

Flat-roofed mid-levelled apartments were built anywhere and everywhere; on rocks, sheer cliff faces, even over old ruins.  

Sicily is heavily populated with over 5 million people on a relatively small island at 25,000km2, especially when compared to NZ with a similar population and land size of 267,000km2.  

The train stopped at several locations, including the beautiful hilly city of Taormina.  Once leaving it, I looked back and was taken back by its dramatic beauty against towering rocks over the sea.  

On arrival to Messina I stepped off the train and spent an hour zig-zagging across the forecourt of the station - la stazione dei treni e degli autobus - looking for the “giuntabus” - as per directions sent to me by my host, Melissa.  

Speaking terrible Italiano - because no-one spoke English there, I was sent from one direction to the next.  No-one seemed to know where the specific bus was that would take me to Milazzo (or maybe I couldn’t understand them).  Strada, lì lì.  Where?

Giuntabus Bus Stop

Eventually it was an old man who took me to the spot where I needed to be before extending  his hand out for a tip. I happily gave him 50 cents when I saw I was standing under a tiny sign saying Giuntabus!

Dang, it’s a bus stop!  I had been looking for an actual bus!

People started to gather and suddenly the bus appeared and stopped.  

I gave the driver €10 and I got €7 back after asking  Milazzo Porto? I found a seat and relaxed, a little.  Finally, after days of travel, I was almost there.

Earlier when I was running around with my heavy backpack on my shoulders, I spoke to a taxi driver who offered to take me for €80.  I’m glad I persevered looking for the Giuntabus. 

I didn’t have long in Messina but learned that the Godfather movie was filmed there apparently and the famous scenes at restaurants still operate today. It also has a major port and the Italian mainland can be seen from its shores.  For those wanting to cross, there are ferries that regularly cross the stretch of water between.  

At Sicily’s northern peak, out on a peninsula where two seas meet, the Ionian and Tyrrhenian,

sits Milazzo, another beautiful città overlooking the sea.  It is here I’ll be learning to improve my disastrous Italiano at a local school for a couple of weeks.  Nothing too serious.  Bit of fun, hopefully.

I sat in my seat looking out the window as the old bus sped down the road - a little too quickly for me without a seatbelt! 

After only 30 minutes we had arrived.  The entire time I was travelling to Milazzo from Catania, I had been texting Melissa with my whereabouts. 

Boats Line the Shore

Thank goodness for eSIM because I couldn’t have got to these places without google maps and Melissa’s directions! 

Once I had grabbed my backpack I looked up to see Melissa standing there.  I recognised her from her profile photo.  Thank goodness, because this intrepid-style of travelling was starting to take its toll as the low-level of anxiety or constant vigilance required had removed any appetite over the past few days.

As I jumped into the passenger side of her left-hand drive, the weirdness of all the differences I was experiencing made my stomach turn.  Was it hunger, nerves, or culture-shock, I wasn’t sure, but I was very sure that I was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Private Moored Boats

Immediately we both knew communication would be a challenge but I tried my best to reply to the few questions I actually understood.  

Melissa pointed out the school which was in the centre of Milazzo before she drove us to her apartment and parked up. 

She took my heavy pack and I followed her to a lift and then to her front door.  Her two young children were home and they shyly said their names and I said mine.  

Mellisa took my pack up some curved stairs and told me this was my space.  The room had a lounge area and kitchenette.  There an external door out to the open flat-roof, a generous open space with views out to the sea.  

There were two small rooms off it, where the ceiling sloped to a ceiling height of just 1.3m at best.  One room was my bedroom and the other the bathroom.  It was small but clean, comfortable and private.  

The Roof From my Room

Exhausted, I had a three hour nap before re-emerging and joining her family for dinner.  She had invited a friend who spoke a little more English, and we spent the evening around the dinner table conversing in a mix of our languages. 

Seagull

The following day I met Melissa at the Duomo, the main church where I’d enjoy seeing a procession celebrating San Francesco di Paula, the Patron Saint of Seafarers, later in the day. 

She showed me the building where I would go to school.

The Duomo

Later, I spent the rest of the day navigating the narrow streets, eating gelato and sitting on the sea wall watching well-dressed Italians walk past. 

Melissa had asked me if I was scared travelling alone, especially in Sicily.  

I have felt uncomfortable the moment I boarded the flight out of New Zealand.  Dang, I’m pushing all sorts of boundaries doing this.  I didn’t have the Italian words to explain this to her so I just said, un po’ - a little.