10/9 – Bus riding lessons in Sicily
We’re in Sicily using public transport to get around the island. Sunday, we needed to go from Taormina to Siracusa and decided to use Interbus again. With no direct bus except at 8:15 AM, we had to take the bus from Taormina to Catania and then take another bus to Siracusa. Well, we learned one thing! Check where the FIRST stop is for the bus on a busy route and board the bus there, if possible.
We took Bus 1 all the way to the aeroporto in Catania, knowing that a bus goes to Siracusa from there. Little did we know that the bus route actually starts in the middle of Catania. By the time Bus 2 arrived at the airport, it was very full on a Sunday at 12:40. (We knew this was possible since the bus lady said the bus was full when I asked about a departure time.) Given that the next bus to Siracusa didn’t leave until 2:40 PM, we REALLY wanted on this one – didn’t want to hang out at the aeroporto for 2 more hours.
We did our best European/Italian “what’s a line?” act! Mark took the bags to put them under the bus in the luggage compartment – it’s all self-service – while Susan stood as close to the curb as she could when the bus approached. She was the third person on the bus when the driver muttered to the lady in front of her something in Italian. I could tell by her expression it probably translated to “The bus is full”. I asked him in English and the driver replied, “I have only 2 seats”. (The lady needed more than 2.) I quickly said, “We are 2” and motioned to Mark to push through the crowd at the door and get on the bus!
It worked! We were a bit squished for the 1 hour ride and Mark had to make some young lady move her purse out of a seat but we had seats and left everyone else to curse the Italian bus ticketing system and maybe us, too.
