My family have not needed me for the last few days. Unfortunately for them they have had a good friend die last Friday and the funeral was Monday and then they had to go to Palermo to visit another friend who is also dying, on Tuesday. This has meant I have been free all of the day, which has allowed me to do some exploring…

Relying only on my memory of google mapping this city, I have been going down to the bus depot which is next to the central train station, and hopping on different  buses in the vein hope that I will get somewhere different from the last time.

What I have learnt about the bus system here is a number of things. Firstly that there is no system! There are many different numbered buses supposedly with different routes but I’ve been on 5 different numbered buses now and all but one of those took me pretty much around the same roads! I have however discovered that there are several bus depots where the buses like to stop and take a break from their busy schedules. The bus drivers hop off, tell you they will be back in 10 mins and rarely reappear for at least 30 mins! To be fair this has only happened on the buses I’ve  been on after 8pm. I think they must take their dinner break or something!

The other thing I have learnt is that bus drivers are usually quite congenial and like to help you when you ask them if this is the right bus to such an such a street. They especially like to rattle off the numbers of the buses you need to take. Did you know that cinquecento quaranta tre (543) sounds exactly like quattrocento trentuno (431) sounds exactly like cinquecento cinquanta due (552) which sounds a lot like quattrocento cinquanta cinque (455)???  The busdrivers are usually quite patient with me as I get them to repeat the number they just said several times until eventually they resort to holding up the right amount of fingers to help me decipher what number they are getting at! The best part of all of this is that every single bus driver has told me to catch a different numbered bus to the exact same road or place!

Today, being my third day of experimenting with the buses, I  didn’t even walk all the way to the bus depot to start my journey. I  discovered that a number of the buses I’ve been on, actually stop on the main road that is very close to my apartment. I decided just to hop on a different bus today and see where it would take me. I must make mention that there is NO timetable as far as I  can make out. Several looks on google come up pretty much blank. There is a website for one of the bus companies but it won’t translate into english and is completely  indecipherable as far as I can tell. Nor does anyone seem to sell a timetable. From what I can gather, if there is noone waiting at a bus stop then you will be waiting a long time. If there are people waiting at the bus stop then it will probably be along in about 10 mins!

So today the bus I got on did go on some roads I’d never been on and it stopped at a different bus depot that I hadn’t been to as well! Eventually tho, it ended up in Via Etnea as all buses seem to. I got off at the top end this time and explored some of the side streets off it and found some very classy clothing stores. Most of these stores have snooty looking sales assistants who look totally uninterested and are quite often just standing  in the doorway smoking. I  must also point out that there does not seem to be a routine or common time for these shops to be open. Sometimes they are open, sometimes they are closed…

My bravest bus trip would have to be the one I  took yesterday to Aci Castello. The hotel I stayed in was out that way and it was sunny and I wanted to see the sea again. It was 4pm when I  walked down to the bus depot. I read signs, asked a few people and mostly got the general consensus to take the novacento cinquanta quattro (954) bus to Aci Castello.  I  sat and waited, and waited and waited and watched many buses stop and go past me. I also saw a number of different buses that had the sign for Aci Castello in their windows but they all went across the roundabout to another sort of parking place for buses that was in the middle of the roundabout. I was beginning  to think I should’ve  been on one of those buses. When I asked someone about them, they said they were the country buses and that I was in the right place to catch the bus I wanted. Go figure?

Eventually after about an hour of waiting, the “right” bus came along and I hopped on. Finally I  would see the sea again. Mind you it was starting to get dark!  The bus passed the hotel I had stayed in and I didnt recognise anything anymore but I knew that the castle that this place was named after was coming up so I  decided to get off there. The castle is kind of like a dead end in the road. It is an old ruin perched on a lump of lava sticking out from the sea cliffs. The road ends in a piazza from where you can climb up to the castle ruins. By now it was dusk and the square was alive with children playing,  young parents chatting nearby and old men sitting on the park benches. There were a few tourists wandering the castle but mostly it felt as if I  was in a local village square. I had a little wander and then perched on a bench to watch the fading light on the sea. Eventually I thought I better head back and realised I had no idea which bus or what time if at all it would come. I started walking,  it was dark now and about 8pm. Once I left the bustle and noise of the square I was alone on the road. What if there wasn’t a bus this late? I  asked a lady walking her dog as she passed me if she knew. She was American and had not long moved here and had no idea about the buses as she drove a car. We had a good ol chat until a bus came along and I thought I  better get on it!

So in conclusion, the main thing I have learnt about being on the buses here in Catania  is that it doesn’t matter which bus you get on, you will get there! It also doesn’t matter what time you want to get there, because you will eventually get there! And even when it’s late and you think you might not get back from being there, a bus will trundle along and you will end up back where you started!

Look, it might seem like chaos to some, but hey, it works!