By train to the southern-most point of Italy (14)

To the southernmost point of Italy or on the last rail ferry?

I am almost there. One last and easy train ride of 62 km separates me from the southernmost point you can reach by train in Italy: the little town of Pozzallo. From there, a ferry offers a fast connection to the island state of Malta, a very tempting target. But I am running out of time. I decide to take a train from Syracuse via Pozzallo to Gela. From there I can continue through the heart of Sicily back to Messina.

Newer than it looks: the beautiful Fontana di Diana in Syracuse was inaugurated in 1907  

Unfortunately the train connections in this part of the world are very erratic. There are no trains from Caltanisetta in the center of Sicily to Palermo in the north or to the south coast at Agrigento. The only possibility to explore the interior of Sicily by train is to go to Gela, from there to Caltanisetta and then back to the coast in Catania. The schedule seems to change daily. Every Sunday there are two-hourly trains to Pozzallo which continue to Modica, but no trains to Gela. On Monday there are only a few train connections, but three direct trains to Gela, a ride of 3 hours and 23 minutes. Only the one at 11.11 is at a convenient time. I will arrive in the afternoon, check into a hotel, take in the sights and continue the next day.

Reminder of the Roman legacy of Syracuse: Amfiteatro in the archeological park 

I have to leave the B&B, where I stayed for the last three nights, by ten and there is no way to leave my luggage. The station is around the corner and I arrive there more than an hour early. Two trains are waiting at the platforms, an IC train ready to depart for Rome and a recently arrived IC Notte. Even in the morning the heat is oppressive and the air-conditioning of the trains are running under considerable noise. The station is under reconstruction into a sterile transit terminal. The platforms have been raised, everything deemed to be unnecessary has been removed.

View of the Mediterranean and the Calabrian Coast from the fortress built by the medieval Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa 

There are not many trains leaving from Syracuse. Therefore the display shows most of what they have on offer for the rest of the day. But there is no train to Gela at 11.11. The ticket counter is closed. The ticket machine on the platform doesn’t show this train either.

The station of Syracusa with an IC Notte und a Hitachi HTR 412 IC in the background

One advantage of Italian railways is that there is always plenty of staff. A helpful employee asks me where I want to go. She tells me that the train to Gela is canceled. There is only one direct train today, in the afternoon, or a connection via Catania including multiple changes where I might miss the connection. However, the direct train she refers to is not even in the schedule on the machine and the information panel. She doesn’t know about a replacement bus and sends me to the kiosk in the station building for more information. The guy behind the counter tells me that the only bus has left at 9.

The impressive station building

It does not make a lot of sense to take the late train to Gela. After arrival, there wouldn’t be any time left for sightseeing and in the morning I would have to leave early. I am a bit fed up with the erratic rail service in Sicily. I go back to the ticket machine to check whether there is still space on the IC to Rome. However, I am not able to make a reservation for an interrail ticket holder. Neither in the app on my phone.

HTR 412  

The train to Rome is an HTR 412 unit. The number 4 stands for the four carriages of the train, H for Hybrid. These trains were originally introduced in 2020. It is a multi-modal traction EMU which can use 3 kV overhead electric line, batteries or diesel engines. 26 four-car HTR 412 trains were procured for Intercity services. For the connection between Syracuse and Rome, the train can use its batteries to board the ferry in Messina for the transfer to the mainland. Later, it turns out that this is the very first day this train is used for this service. Instead of getting stuck somewhere in Sicily or waiting for replacement busses I could rather take this smart train and use the last railway ferry in Europe. A pity that I already have reserved the hotel in Gela. It is too late to cancel and I would loose the money.

Shipwrecks in the bay of Augusta 

There are only a couple of minutes left for the departure of IC 724 to Rome at 10.19. As holder of an interrail ticket I have to get a reservation for this train. I ask the friendly employee whether she could get the reservation for me from the ticket machine. Unfortunately she does not know how to do it either. Instead she goes to the train staff and asks something I don’t understand, but I guess whether they can sell me the reservation on the train. Since this doesn’t work either, she proposes to buy a regular ticket for me from the machine. Trains are cheap in Italy. The trip sets me back 23.50 € but the reservation also costs a fee and I save an interrail travel day. I am just able to find my seat and the train departs.

The vast refinery complex between Augusta and Syracusa

My seat is facing away from the sea and I share a table with two boring teenage tourists who stare in their phones. Furthermore, I ride with my back to the direction of travel which is bad for spotting interesting spots along the line. Fortunately the mother of the teenagers, who does not have a window at all, starts a discussion with her brood to swap seats. The daughter gives in and so I get an entertaining travel companion. The four of them – the father is not in a talking mood – are from Adelaide. They use the opportunity of the end of their daughter’s exchange year in the UK after a study of design for a trip home from London via Sicily, Rome and Cairo. Before they leave the train in Catania I know a big part of her life. Her father originally came from Lithuania, was saved by the Americans in Berlin in 1945 and sent to a camp in the German town of Würzburg for three years until he was able to go to Australia and get a degree as an engineer. When she was young they took to the sea with a little 6 m sailing boat her father had built himself. This raised her love of traveling. With a friend she went to various countries in Africa when she was young. Meanwhile she works with aborigines to help them make good use of their land. Although the aborigines don’t own the land they live on, they have a right of use. Unfortunately the native fauna and flora suffers big damage from introduced species. While we pass the industrial wasteland of Augusta she proudly explains that South Australia now generates enough wind and solar energy to meet its needs. A gas-fired power plant is available as a backup.

Smoke from Etna... business as usual

Meanwhile we are in plain view of the Etna volcano. It produces such an impressive column of smoke that even the Australian teenage son is inspired to look up from his phone and out of the window. The Australian family leaves the train in Taormina. The mother is glad that they will move into a nice apartment with a pool. In this heat, that's certainly not an unnecessary luxury.

Station of Taormina

It is astounding how popular a destination for tourists Sicily is nowadays. When we were here in 1984 there was nobody. The Australians give way for two couples from Viña del mar in Chile. They will have to stay on this train for another 10 hours until Rome, where they will board their flight home.

Entry bay of the rail ferry

In Messina, both the train from Syracuse and the identical unit from Palermo have to board the ferry to San Giovanni. The crossing of roughly 7 km across the strait of Messina only takes about 20 minutes. However, one and a half hour pass between the scheduled departures in Messina and in Villa San Giovanni since it takes some time to load and unload the train on the ferry. It is therefore not surprising that there are plans to build a bridge to link the island to the mainland.

View of Messina and another ferry of the FS

Already the Romans dreamed about building a bridge between the mainland and Sicily. It was to be constructed by boats connected by planks. However, the bridge never was realized. Numerous other proposals followed. The first detailed plan for a modern suspension bridge was made in the 1990ies. The motivation was for providing a road connection, the additional railway track was necessary for obtaining subsidies from the EU in the framework of a transeuropean highspeed rail network. A 3.6 km suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina between Torre Faro on Sicily and Villa San Giovanni in Calabria on the Italian mainland was proposed. If built, it would be the longest suspension bridge in the world and part of the Berlin–Palermo railway axis of the Trans-European Transport Networks.

View of the conventional ferry terminal in Messina

There are a lot of concerns and protests against a bridge of such a size in an area known for earthquakes and strong currents in the strait. The bridge supposedly interferes with bird migration routes. And of course there always is the possibility of involvement of Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta infiltration into the bridge's construction.

Embarkation pier for the train

The project was canceled in 2006 under Prime Minister Romano Prodi but revived in 2009 under Silvio Berlusconi. In 2013 under Mario Monti it was cancelled again. Giorgia Meloni resurrected the plans again in 2023 and received final government approval in August 2025, allowing construction on the bridge to commence. The bridge was counted as a defence-related expense inside a NATO spending pot. The United States government said it disapproved of the strategy, calling it "creative accounting". In October 2025, Italy's Court of Audit rejected the proposal.

Two of the embarkation piers and the embarkation building which is not used

In February 2026, Matteo Salvini, minister for infrastructure, said a government decree would keep the project's cost set at €13.5 billion, and he repeated that work should begin in 2026. However, he did not say who would pay the bills when the costs would be higher than what was decreed and he did not commit to further deadlines. In August 2026 the works have to yet started.

HTR 412 train in the hold of the ferry

So for the time being there is no realistic end date for the train ferry service across the strait. However, the uncertainty about the bridge construction invariably casts a shadow on the investment plans of the Italian railways for this area. A new ferry boat is an investment which only pays back after many years. But also investments in the rail infrastructure in the ferry ports and the adjoining stations Messina and Villa San Giovanni have to be linked to the plans about building a bridge. San Giovanni probably would loose its importance as a big station entirely since the high speed trains would not pass through there any more.

The trains in the ferry and the landing bridge for cars 

It takes some time until our train gets its chance to hop on the ferry. When Tim Parks did the same trip years ago on one of the conventional trains the air condition was switched off between Messina and Villa San Giovanni, probably because there was no engine to power it. The interior of his coach was boiling. This situation belongs to the past since today. Although the process of boarding is still slow, the smart hybrid train can still power the air conditioning during the shunting.

Rubbish around a disused embarkation track

The ferry terminal in Messina gives a desolate impression. Of the numerous tracks leading to the embarkation bridges only one seems to be still in operation. The others end under piles of rubbish and building material. While there seem to be several rail ferries in the berths next to ours the faculties to board there seem to be out of use. Are they deconstructing or reconstructing here?

The disused embarkation pier

After the trains have been securely fastened on the ship we are allowed to explore the ferry. The Chilean couple volunteers to watch my luggage, we are in Sicily after all. Most of our fellow passengers wander straight to the cafeteria to use the short trajectory for getting coffee. Very few of them dare to venture beyond the doors with a sign “keep closed during crossing”. They give access to the outside platform above both ends of the boat. From there I have a perfect view of the boarding piers, the other ferries moored here and the port.

Old rail ferry

Besides our ferry there seem to be at least four others with the symbol of the italian railways FS, The one next to us, the Trinacria, is rusty and in a different color scheme. The free railroad map shows five invasoturos, boarding berths, three with rail bridges for trains. However, at least the one leading to the rusty ferry is paved over. There is no sign that freight trains are still handled here. Neither is there any access to passengers on foot via the long boarding bridges. Between shacks and all the columns supporting these bridges piles of building material and rubbish await the implementation of a plan.

Statue of the madonna at the entrance to the proper port of Messina

The statue of the Madonna on its column at the end of the flood wall marks our final departure from Sicily. On the base the inscription “vos et ipsam civitatem benedictimus” (We bless you and the city itself) in huge white letters. On the other side a view to the coast makes clear how far the station and the railway ferry terminal are removed from the passenger and car ferry I have taken some days ago. The city of Messina stretches extensively along the coast.

The two HTR 412 trains in the hold of the ferry. There are two more tracks

Meanwhile the trains wait in the bowels for debarkation. Only one end of the ferry has a track for boarding of trains. The other end has the ordinary boarding platform for cars or pedestrians. After arrival in Villa San Giovanni, the trains slowly leave the boat. It takes quite some time of a jerky procedure with tortured wheels whining on rusty rails while the train inches towards a marshaling yard in a crawl. Many people have got up already, luggage at hand, in expectation of getting off in Villa San Giovanni. However, first, the two EMU units are combined in the shunting yard before the trains slowly move into the station of San Giovanni.

The station of Villa San Giovanni

In Villa San Giovanni I have to get another ticket for the short ride to Reggio di Calabria. Fortunately I have more than one hour to move to the narrow passage in the station building where they sell the tickets. I even have time to assist a couple of disoriented Argentinians, who are looking for a later connection to Tropea after they missed their train due to our slow shunting process. I ask myself why somebody from Argentina wants to spend time in Tropea, of all places. But maybe they just want to get away from their miserable government. There monologue complaining about their president and the situation at home carries on until I leave for the ticket counter to buy a ticket to Reggio de Calabria for 2.30 €.

Old Aln 663 train ready for departure

In the station of Reggio de Calabria a nice Aln 663, an old fashioned rail car, waits at the platform to continue on the line along the coast. I would love to take it, hair blowing in the wind of the open windows, but again I have reserved a hotel. The heat is unbearable and after I have checked into my room I first need some time of recovery before I start to explore the town.

The pedestrian zone of Reggio di Calabria

I did not expect a lot in Reggio de Calabria. However, when I finally venture into the center it turns out to be a pleasant, quiet town. The streets are full of pedestrians enjoying the beginning evening breeze. In the extensive pedestrian zone I find an ice-cream parlor but the ice-cream melts away faster than I can lick on it.

Vittoria towers above the beach of Reggio

Reggio de Calabria suffered a lot from earthquakes. Really big ones were in 1783, 1908 and 1923. In 1908 a quarter of the inhabitants lost their lives. Many died when they were surprised by a tsunami after they had fled from the earthquake to the open space of the ocean front. More damage was done since its strategic position close to the strait of Messina attracted air raids in the second world war.

The cathedral of Reggio de Calabria

Also the cathedral suffered damage from the earthquakes. It was rebuilt and the interior, full of light and colorful, is inviting. Even today, a Monday, it houses a wedding. Above the cathedral are the remains of an Aragonese castle. The oldest parts of it were demolished during the darkest moments of the cities recent history.

Interior of the cathedral

In the second half of the 20th century corruption scandals shook the city. The 'Ndrangheta had infiltrated the city council. Urban decay, lack of industrial planning and organized crime dominated the town. The 'Ndrangheta extorted protection money (pizzo) from virtual each business and had more power than the city council in awarding licences to retailers. Since the 1990s, the so-called "Primavera di Reggio", a protest movement of people and government institutions, turned the tide. The left-wing mayor Italo Falcomatà initiated the recovery of the town. Symbolic hereof is the Lungomare Falcomatà, the sea-side boulevard. In fact it is one of the nicest I know of any town in Italy. The boulevard is dotted with rare magnolias, exotic palms and other enormous trees. Beach pavilions invite to have a drink or dinner accompanied by a sunset above the Etna volcano across the strait.

The Aragonese fortress of Reggio

The beach promenade also includes an old-fashioned playground. Further-on some fishing boats rest on the beach while men in their bathing trunks try their luck with a rod and line. Here the nice part of the promenade comes to an end. The area gives an impression of the times when most of the town looked decrepit. At the horizon Etna still ejects a cloud of smoke as a permanent warning that more dangers might be waiting in the future.

The beach promenade

Sources:

Tim Parks, Italian ways, Ranadom House, Vintage, 2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Messina_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Calabria

Statue of Athena Promachus on the beach in Reggio dedicated to the Italian king Vittorio Emmanuele III

Link to the following post:

The strait of Messina and Etna from the beach in Reggio di Calabria

By train to the southern-most point of Italy (10)

A visit to the national Italian railway museum at Pietrarsa

The first railway line in Italy went from Corso Garibaldi in Naples to the Royal Palace of Portici. The 7.25 km Naples–Portici railway was commissioned by King Ferdinand II of Bourbon, the king of the Two Sicilies. The route was inaugurated on October 3, 1839. Taking account of its importance - it connected the king’s palace in Portici with the city center in Naples, the kingdoms most important, but notoriously rebellious biggest city - it was double-tracked right from the beginning. Bayard and Vesuvio, both 2-2-2 locomotives for passenger traffic, were imported from Longridge and Co Ironworks of Bedlington in England and were about the first steam locomotives in Italy. The same company built the “Arend”, the first steam locomotive of the Netherlands. The rolling stock was built locally. Already after 2 month later, by the end of 1839, the railway had carried 131,116 passengers. It was extended to Castellammare di Stabia in 1842 and Nocera in 1844.

The entrance to the station in Napoli Centrale

The original 1839 track is still active today and currently forms the western section of the modern Naples–Salerno line. Along the line, in the outskirts of Naples, Pietrarsa Workshops were established to maintain the rolling stock of the line. Today, the National Railway Museum occupies the foundry, part of the former workshop at Pietrarsa.

One of the entrances to the underground world of Napoli Centrale

For somebody intent to visit a country by rail it is obligatory to visit the railway museum. Modern Italian rail-traffic has lost many of its national particularities. The quest for European standardization, as desirable as it might be for the ease of international traffic, has introduced multiple units which seem to be the same between Gdansk and Marseilles, while station buildings and layouts with typical design disappear with a terrible speed in favor of high platforms, inadequate shelters and anonymous online services. The museum will make clear what is lost.

Platform of the metro line at Napoli Centrale

From Naples it should not be a problem to get there – the museum is right next to the station of Pietrarsa-San Giorgio a Cremano on the original route of Italy’s first railway line. It is now part of the main route between Napels and Salerno. However, at the moment there is a problem. Only the trains of Naple’s Metro line 2 from Pozzuoli uses the line as far as the station of Naples San Giovanni Barra, one stop short of the museum. After San Giovanni Barra the line is closed for rail traffic. From San Giovanni Barra, a bus should continue for those intrepid travelers who want to go beyond, in the direction of Salerno.

One of the marshalling yards at the entrance to Napoli Centrale

Full of hope I proceed to what is called Napoli Piazza Garibaldi station, the name the underground bowels have got to be distinguished from big Napoli centrale station on the ground above. Next to two metro lines also the trains of the various lines of the Circovesuviana narrow gauge railway leave from here. The metro of Napoli is operated by the Italian railways FS and non-distinct from their ordinary suburban trains. Once you have found the entrance, payment can be done by “tap and tap”, you hold your bankcard at the reader to get in and later, hopefully, again, to get out, otherwise the system does not know how far you went and will charge you with the maximum amount. Corresponding announcements are made on the trains, however, they do not disclose what the maximum amount will be.

Napoli Gianturco station

The low, confined spaces in these underground bowels are full of people. It is Sunday morning and an expectant atmosphere of a day on the beach is prominent. Mostly young people chatter excited and loudly. When I reach the entrance ports they are guarded by a couple of employees of the Italian railways FS. The electronic ports are out of order and therefore “tap and tap” does not work. Since the employees cannot read QR codes or chips everybody is required to buy himself a paper copy of a ticket from one of 4 FS ticket machines in the area. All of them are surrounded by big groups of excited youngsters who cannot wait to get to the beach. Getting a ticket there will take some time. I think it might be better to go upstairs into the main station concourse and look for a ticket machine there.

Napoli Gianturco

However, ten meters further on and just out of sight of the human ticket controllers at the entrance ports to the platform, I discover a sign pointing to the elevator for platform 2. No gates have to be passed to get to the entrance doors of the elevator. I take the lift down to the platform. At the bottom, the entrance gates are open and no human watch-dog is on guard. It is only two stops from here to San Giovanni Barra station. When the train comes I take the risk and travel without a ticket.

One of the many little ports visible during the train ride along Napoli bay if the train is riding 

It takes the train the surprising amount of 15 minutes for the short ride of two stops. When I exit at San Giovanni Barra I am surrounded by a suburban wasteland. To the right of the new platforms are industrial ruins, stone buildings where only the facades are left standing, the roofs all collapsed, everything overgrown with weeds and trees. This also was part of the extensive railway workshop but did not have the luck to find a new destination as a museum.

The Napoli metro, an ordinary train 

To the left is a big open space where somebody has started an initiative to create a kind of parkland. Concrete borders have been placed and walkways paved, but then the landscaping has stopped. The users have created their own, short cut pathways over the wild, sun-burnt prairie littered with stray garbage. The backdrop is formed by an assembly of buildings which would be considered a slum in other countries but is an ordinary residential neighborhood here. The remaining space is taken by an enormous parking lot, where a handful of white long distance busses wait.

Arrival of the metro in San Giovanni Barra

This is where I meet Giovanni. He is my age, lives in Portici, the original terminal of the kings first railway, and, like myself, wonders, which of these busses will continue in our direction. We approach the driver of a bus parked in the right direction but he points at one of the other busses. Their drivers don’t seem to know why they are here either. However, one of them points at a couple of containers which we had overlooked so far. They form an information booth manned by a friendly girl. She affirms that there should be a bus towards Salerno at 10 am.

The barren park area outside San Giovanni Barra station

At 10 to 10 a bus arrives. People get off and walk towards the waiting trains at the platform. When we want to board, the driver stops us. He shows us his schedule. His next turn is at 12.30. He will wait here for more than 2 hours until he is allowed to continue his work. He sends us back to the girl at the information booth.

The bus stop at San Giovanni Barra

She is sure that there should be a bus every 20 to 30 minutes. The next one should arrive in due course. Since the traffic along the road to Salerno usually is congested, nobody knows how long the trip actually will take. In addition the main road through San Giovanni a Teduccio, the name of this collection of industrial and residential ruins, is closed and the bus has to take a detour.

The boiling information container

While we wait, Giovanni tells me that this is daily business here. The railway seems to be closed regularly and then the trains are replaced by busses, which have no reliable schedule and nobody knows where they actually stop. He is very surprised when I tell him that I had similar experiences before in Rom, and, that it is no different at home, in Germany. He tells me that, when he was young, he had a German girl-friend, who studied in Würzburg. He went there every couple of month to visit her. At the time everything seemed to work perfectly there. Well, I guess, things can change.

Main street, San Giovanni a Teduccio

In Campania, according to him, it is the worst. Everything is run-down and construction works, if they start, are never finished. He blames it on politics, not the local, but the national politicians. Money is squandered or disappears.

The hot narrow canyons of San Giovanni

Meanwhile a bus has arrived. We board. Another guy, an honest American obviously, asks about a ticket. The driver tells him to buy it online. I don’t make public that I don’t have one either and the driver does not ask for a ticket. Instead he takes off right away, searching for a route avoiding the blocked main street of San Giovanni. The pavement is in a horrible state. The bus creaks and shakes while the driver does his best to avoid the worst potholes and slow down when that is not possible. After a couple of turns we stand waiting in a long queue in front of a red traffic light. Giovanni points out that the railway museum is at the far side of the traffic light.

Typical street of a Napolitano suburb

I ask the driver whether I can get off here. It is faster to walk than wait for the progress of the bus. However, he refuses. He replaces the train, and the train does not stop outside a station to let people get on or off. I will have to wait.

A shrine of Mary can be found at most corners

The American guy is still looking to buy a ticket. On the phone it does not work. When he approaches the driver again, he looses his patience. Just sit down, he shouts.

The closed station of Pietrarsca

Eventually we pass the traffic light. The bus makes a left turn and then stops in the middle of the road to let me off since the actual bus stop is blocked by parked cars. I say hello to Giovanni and make my way across the abandoned railway tracks to the entrance of the national railway museum. To the right the platforms of the Pietrarsa-San Giorgio a Cremano station stop are barricaded off and inaccessible. However, the screen above the platforms still shows the scheduled trains and the ticket machines seem to be functioning. The screens are too far away to be legible and nobody can get to the machines to buy his ticket, for example for the bus, since the entrance is blocked by a fence.

Entrance to the national railway museum

Although it is still early in the morning it is hot. I am glad to enter the big hall of the museum which is a couple of degrees cooler. When they see my camera at the ticket counter, they require me to fill a form that I will not use the photos for commercial purposes. They even want to have my passport number on the form. All the others who record every detail with their telephones are left alone. I forget to ask a copy of the form as a souvenir.

The main hall of the museum, the former foundry

Main attraction of the museum is an impressive hall, where 26 steam engines and some three phase electric engines are displayed on two rows of tracks on the two sides of a traverser. They represent the most complete collection of Italian motive power.

The museum displays a broad variety of engines, from humble shunting workhorses to noble express engines

Italy has no natural resources like reserves of coal or oil. The Italian railways had to look for inventive solutions to develop economic, fuel saving engines. Some of the most advanced developments for steam locomotives like Caprotti walve gear or Franco Crosti feedwater heaters were developed by Italian engineers.

An engine with Franco Crosti feedwater heater

While railway companies in Germany of the UK built steam engines until the end of the 1950ies, Italy stopped in the 1920ies. The available older engines were continued to be used and modernized when more advanced technology was available. New engines only arrived during the second world war from the US to replace material damaged or destroyed in the war.

Internal drive external walve gear engine 

In many parts of Italy but in particular in Sicily and Sardinia, the standard gauge network was supplemented with a grid of narrow gauge lines. For these lines a track width of 950 mm was selected, a choice which was unique for Italy and was only copied for the railways in the few Italian colonies in Africa. A few of these lines, in Puglia and Sardinia, remain active today.

Narrow gauge rack engine type R370 built for Sicily

 

Some of the narrow gauge lines in Sicily were so steep that rack engines had to be employed. The FS Class R370 were 0-6-0 rack-and-adhesion steam locomotive built for the steep, mountainous rail lines in Sicily. However, the FS also had some standard gauge lines, were rack engines were necessary. The class 980 engines built by SLM in Switzerland from 1908 were used for the line to Volterra in Tuscany with an incline of ten percent and after 1912 for the Paola-Cosenza line in Calabria.

Separate drive and walve gear for the rack and adhesion cylinders

With the upcoming electrification the great water resources were seen as a convenient and cheap form of energy. The Italian railways started to electrify their lines in a rather early stage, but again with a rather unique solution of using three phase AC current which required very complicated catenary and pantographs, in particular at the points in stations. Eventually they concluded to replace this system by the more manageable, but meanwhile also outdated 3000 V DC power supply which is still in use today. It took until the 1970ies before the unique archaic three phase electric behemoths could be replaced. Until then they dominated the rails in Northern Italy, with Alessandria as their last stronghold.

Engines for three phase AC current

In the 1930ies the FS started with the production of a variety of railcars to make traffic on branch lines more economic. Steam engines then only had to be used for long passenger or for freight trains. Ansaldo-Breda and Fiat built several series of these railcars.

Aln 772, one of those typical cigars

Not only the technical solutions found for railways were typical, also the design of the locomotives was unique. Steam engines were shiny black with red wheels, elegant with conical firebox doors and sleek boilers. All the other material, coaches, electrical and later Diesel engines and railcars were painted in an elegant paint scheme of two tone brown. This gave the railcars their appropriate nickname, “cigars”.

Early Diesel engine

After the decision was taken to replace the three phase AC current and built lines electrified with 3000 V DC in the 1930ies the FS developed a limited number of modern electric locomotives which were omnipresent until the 1980ies. An entire era ended with the disappearance of these brown engines. The museum should show some representatives, however I cannot find them. Eventually, I realize that a part of the hall where the electric engines and railcars are displayed is blocked off. On the other side of a row of higher windows I see red pantographs. There are a couple of sliding doors, but they are closed. Out of pure habit I try one. It is locked. But the one next to it is open. It gives access to a little lobby used for storage, but behind there is another part of the big hall where the brown beauties wait behind scaffolding which probably never will disappear again. However, before I even get time to get my camera up, an ear splitting alarm goes off. I make my way out of closed area as quickly as possible. Fortunately there is a crowd of screaming little critters running around here without boundaries imposed by their guardians. It is easy to blame them for their intrusion into the forbidden sacred halls.

Railway design table in the cafe of the museum

In the museum cafe, where I hide from the ongoing noise of the alarm, I am the only guest getting the full attention of three employees in FS outfit. The choice is limited. However, my Americano is served in porcelain bearing the railroads logo, the tables are decorated with sketches of engines and the black heavy metal chairs have a golden FS emblem in the backrest. Unfortunately nothing comparable is available in the small museum store.

Segment turntable in the exterior area of the museum

The railway museum is right at the water’s edge. There is no indication when the next bus will leave towards the station at San Giovanni Barra. Despite the searing afternoon heat I decide to walk the distance of about 2 km. The main road is lined by buildings which look derelict, but are all inhabited. Nets are supposed to prevent loose parts of masonry from falling off the facade onto the few pedestrians on the narrow sidewalk but in particular from damaging the cars on the road. Votive shrines displaying images of Mary and the baby at every other corner might help to avoid injury. The imminent danger from above does not prevent the tenants to escape their baking quarters and sit on chairs on the sidewalk in front of their doors. Behind their back I can peek through the gate into cave like, half subterranean hollows which receive natural light only through the open front door. I see worn-out sofas, dinner tables covered with plastic sheets, and above all, a television, always running at considerable volume. In many, the statue of a saint completes the interior.

Football and its heroes are everywhere in Naples

Next to them bags full of garbage waiting hopefully to be picked up sometime. Above the laundry is suspended from lines spun between facades and balconies. From others hang the blue and white flags of the local soccer club. Images of the greatest player of all times, Maradonna, are glued to the crumbling walls. A couple of police agents keep watch from the inside of their car, engine and air-conditioning running.

Garbage in the streets of San Giovanni

Half of the road is blocked for construction purposes. Although the other half is limited to one-way traffic the odd dare-devil tries to pass through anyway, thereby using gaps in the barriers of the construction site or the sidewalk to avoid the legal traffic in the opposite direction. Their girls, faces covered with over-sized sunglasses, decorate cool and disinterested the passenger seats. I take an alley down towards the sea, thereby exchanging the danger by falling parts of the building or reckless drivers for the shadow-less heat on a concrete coastal walkway.

The crowded beaches on a Sunday afternoon

To my right the abandoned railway track, to the left little beaches sheltered by breakwaters constructed from blocks of rock and concrete. Vertical surfaces are covered with graffiti, horizontal ones with garbage and tattoo covered bodies gleaming from sun protection. Some have brought their parasol or a stretcher. Only few take a dip into the calm water. Maybe the others are put off by the unknown content of the thick concrete pipes leading into the sea next to the beach.

Laundry dries fast in the scorching heat of the streets

The couple of refreshment kiosks playing loud music don’t attract me. I sit down on one of the graffiti colored concrete benches along the promenade, have a sip from my bottle filled with tepid water and eat an apple. A teenage guy passes by with a couple of girls and makes a remark about my frugal meal. My attention is fixed on the bouncing butts of the girls more accentuated then covered by their tiny bikinis.

The successful Napoli soccer team

Closer to the station of San Giovanni the coast is occupied by the ruins of abandoned industrial buildings. For the last bit of my walk I have to go back to the main road. When I reach the empty expanse in front of the station, a train back to Naples is ready for departure. However, before I succeed to get a ticket from the machine it is gone. The fare for a ride is 1.50 €. Not worth the risk to ride without a ticket.

The virgin protecting what is important in life

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