We're Matteo and Micha, in our last episode
we visited the hilltop town of Taormina where we soaked in its gorgeous views
and wandered around its winding streets. Today we are jumping on the train and
heading to the tiny town of Tindari. Wait, why are we on a train when we
said we were doing the ultimate Italian road trip? Well if you saw our Cefalu episode, you know that we're in the process of buying a car.. but that's taking a
bit of time so for now we're train hopping, and using the train in Italy can be a little
confusing so today we're gonna show you how. When you get to the train station, you'll find
a machine just like this one. The machine does have different languages you can choose so it
doesn't just have to be an Italian, and for this video obviously we'll be choosing English.
Machine: "Beware of pickpockets, in case of need ask only Trenitalia staff for more information." You're going to go to buy your ticket and then you can search the train station, in this case we're going
to Tindari. So you go here, you can either choose a one-way ticket or a round trip as well as
how many adults or children are on this trip, in this case we'll do one for me and so we can
show you how to use the app as well. Today we want a one-way and we want to click continue,
the next train is coming at 10 30. You will notice that it says there is one change in between,
that is because the train that we are taking does not stop at Tindari, we have to swap in a small
town before that. You click your ordinary fare, it will tell you how long you have to swap to the
next train once we get to the station Patti S. Pier, continue. These are the two trains that we are
going to have to take and so it tells us the first one there and the second one there, click
forward and it tells you our train is at 10:30 and we'll be getting there at 11:20 with one
change, and so you click purchase. Machine: "Please note remember to stamp your tickets before departure."
So just because you purchased this ticket does not validate it, you have to get it stamped in
the machine outside which I'll show you later. Click continue and you get to choose your method
of payment, either you choose cash or cards. In this case we're going to use a card. Click cards, Machine: "Insert your card." They do have the tap option here. Machine: "Collect your ticket." And that's how it's done. Once you got your
ticket out of the machine you're going to have to validate it as this will not be accepted
on the train without validation, it'll just show as not working. So when you're at the train
station you'll find a machine just like this one. This is the machine that will validate
your ticket for you and so now we will go ahead and validate this ticket, as you
can see by the sticker it wants you to put it into the machine to the left. You
stick it in and you push it to the left and just like that, it's validated. Your
ticket is only valid for four hours from validation, after that it will be cancelled.
Don't stick it into the validation machine too early. The ticket cannot be refunded or exchanged
once you validated it. Now we're going to show you how to book a ticket using the Trenitalia app.
You open up the app on your phone and you hit the search button, then you put in your departure
station and then you choose your arrival station, then you select the date and time and how many
passengers you need to book for. It will bring up the available train times as well as tell
you how much it is, so select the one you want. To double-check that you've selected the train you
want, you expand the bar at the bottom and it will tell you what time the train is leaving, if there's
any train changes and how much the total cost is. Once you have verified that, you click proceed.
Now you enter your passenger details or if you've already inputted them into the app you select the
passengers traveling. Then you choose your method of payment, then it will process your online
payment and confirm your tickets. Tickets on the app do not require validation. Once you've
purchased it, you're ready to board. Trenitalia emails you a copy of your tickets and you can also find them under 'my journeys' in the Trenitalia app. When the conductor comes around they will scan the
QR code on your ticket in the app. We personally prefer to use the Trenitalia app because it's
very simple and it usually takes us like a minute to book our tickets. So if you have a phone and you
have data on your phone, that's what we recommend you do. Also coronavirus times, the less you can
touch things like the machine the better but if not buying a ticket at the train station is a
hundred percent pretty smooth and pretty easy. So you'll find these boards all over the train
station and they're broken up into different columns; the first column is the train number, the
second column is the final destination of the train, ora is the time the train departs, retardo
is the next column and that is if the train is delayed it will tell you by how many minutes the
train is delayed, and then the final column is bin which is short for binario which is the platform
number, so that is the platform you have to be on to catch your train. Keep an eye on these boards
because they obviously do change, sometimes you think your train is leaving from platform one
because that's what it said, but last minute they might change it to platform two so just be sure
to keep an eye on the boards for any updates or changes or seeing if the train is delayed. If
the train station doesn't have a screen like the one I just showed you, then you will find this
board with all the train times and destinations, yellow is departures and white is arrivals. In this
case we know our train is leaving at 10:32 and so if you look at the board, there it is right there and
it lists all the stops and what time they will be stopping at each stop. Bin is short for Binario
and it means platform, so that is the platform that you need to be on for your train, if you're on
the wrong platform your train's not gonna show up. When you hear this bell ringing, don't worry
it's not an air raid warning, it is just the ball to tell you that there is a train coming. In order to go from one platform to the other, most train stations do have these underpasses
that allow you to go from one side to another The important thing is to pay attention
to your train number and to note that the destination on the board is the final
destination for the train, your stop will be somewhere between your departure
point and the destination on the board. The trains on the smaller stops only stop for
about one or two minutes so you make sure that you're ready and you jump on when it arrives,
however, the conductor will be standing outside paying attention to who's getting on and off so
don't panic if you have to take a little bit of time to get on the train, and because the train
stops for such a short time be ready to jump off when you get to your stop and right now our
train is about 14 minutes delayed and so we had a 15 minute layover so that gives us one minute
to run from this train and get on to the next one. The app keeps us the most up to date with our
trip, here it's telling us what platform this current train will be arriving at and it also
tells us what platform our next train is leaving from. A great thing about these trains too is that if
you need to charge your phone or your devices there's actually a port right here for it and
there's also a trash can right to the side. If you have a backpack or a bag or something you have
all of this overhead space. If you don't have the app or you just want to keep an eye on the
screens it'll tell you what time you're going to be arriving at each station as you can see
it's scrolling on the bottom part of the screen. Also when you see the toilet sign and it's
green that means that the bathrooms are open and they're not occupied, if it's red that means
it is occupied, and this is the bathroom right here. And when the conductor comes around just show them
the QR code on your app or on your physical ticket. So we're pulling up to our first stop right now
and we gotta run so we don't miss the next train. Okay luckily the underpass is right here and I'm
pretty sure that's our train there. Gotta run.. So now you just pay attention to the platform
numbers. We need to go to platform four And that is our train. If the doors aren't open all you have to do
is click the button and they'll open for you. In part two, we encounter some
unexpected twists in Tindari... like getting picked up by the police
and enduring a brutally steep hike.
