Highlight of this cheap Italian train trip is its famous, charming station
The train: Trenitalia SpA, Sicily
- The route Taormina-Giardini Station to Catania Centrale, Sicily, Italy.
- Distance/duration 48 kilometres/34 minutes (fastest service)
- Operator Trenitalia SpA
- Class Second class
- Frequency Every half hour with 19 services daily
A train arrives at Catania station.Credit: Alamy
The journey
This scenic jaunt not only offers an opportunity to visit the Sicilian Baroque showpiece city of Catania, destroyed by the 1669 eruption of Mount Eta, but also the chance to view the ornate Taormina-Giardini, considered the Italian island’s most elegant railway station.
Hollywood film director Francis Ford Coppola notably shot a scene from The Godfather III, released in 1990, here. Al Pacino and Diane Keaton were pictured on the black and white-tiled platform of the 1866 liberty-style (an Italian version of art nouveau) station. It’s claimed that Coppola opted to shoot most of The Godfather locations here in the eastern side of Sicily over its west and northwest – where the city and traditional mafia hotbed of Palermo is situated – after he was warned off by Cosa Nostra interests.
Diane Keaton (Kay Adams) and Al Pacino (Michael Corleone) in “The Godfather III” on the platform at Taormina-Giardini.Credit: Paramount/Alamy
One of the most remarkable features of the station’s compact central hall are the historical frescoes and reliefs that adorn ceilings and walls below and around its antique furnishings. If you’re travelling from the fashionable hilltop town of Taormina – famed location for the streaming sensation The White Lotus – Taormina-Giardini Station is located right on the coast and overlooking the Bay of Naxos, a 15-minute taxi ride down the hill though, buses are also available. At a tad over half-an-hour, this featured service is the fastest between the two eastern Sicily centres, though the journey can take up to 58 minutes on trains that stop at each station along the route.
Train tracks on the Sicilian coast near Taormina,Credit: iStock
The carriage
The contemporary second-class carriage aboard this inter-city train is comfortable, spick and span.
Carbon emissions
A total of 2.1 kilograms for this rail service compared with 6.2 kilograms if you undertook the same journey by car.
The seat
The seats on this short and swift service are unreserved, so en route to Catania, Sicily’s second largest city after the capital Palermo, try to snare a spot on the right-hand side of the train for views of Mount Etna, should it not be cloud-shrouded. The left-hand side of the carriage also affords views of the Sicilian coastline which the track hugs for all the journey.
Baggage
Sicily itself has an enormous amount of baggage, as evidenced by The Godfather trilogy, and also, more recently, a ban on the sale of mafia-related and perpetuating souvenirs, such as t-shirts, by the mayor of Agrigento in the island’s southwest. But as this is a day trip, your reviewer’s luggage is back at the hotel in Taormina. If you were transferring by train between cities and towns, the newer high-speed trains have luggage storage areas at one end of each carriage, while older trains often have only overhead racks above seats.
Food + drink
One of the most pleasurable aspects of train travel in Sicily is that there are often fully-fledged bars, or cafes, right on the platform where you can buy an espresso, alcoholic or soft drink and snacks like the island’s signature arancini – small golden bread-crumbed and fried rice balls stuffed with a savoury filling, traditionally wrapped in paper and eaten by hand. Unfortunately, the bar at Taormina-Giardini was closed for this journey but the one on the platform at Catania was fully operational.
One more thing
Arrive early to explore the charming station.Credit: Alamy
It’s worth arriving at Taormina-Giardini Station at least half-an-hour or so before your departure so you can properly explore this charming station. However, aside from its excellent platform bar there’s not much to detain you at the much more utilitarian Catania Centrale.
The price
Fares start from €5.80 ($9.64), one way.
The verdict
This breezy journey makes for an enthralling and inexpensive day trip to a grand and gritty Catania from Taormina with the bonus, of course, of a visit to the wonderful The Godfather III railway station. See trenitalia.com
Our rating out of five
★★★★½
The writer visited Italy as a guest of Albatross Tours’ “Italy the Deep South & Sicily″ escorted journey. See albatrosstours.com.au
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