Sicilian trains! RV5391 Catania C.le-Siracusa with Trenitalia Minuetto 02 16/04/2022

This is a repost of favourite video of mine- I keep on re-editing it to improve the colour etc, as I watch it alot myself. It is really tricky getting the colour grading right due to the hazy, bright Sicilian light and tinted window of the train , but I think I have got it as close as I can now. I have processed the video so it is as smooth as possible- however, there are still a few judders ever now and then, but this is due to dropped frames in the master, and I can't do anything about that due to the motion. This version should also reduces the risk of blockiness (set the quality as high as you can!).

Here are some extended highlights of a journey made on 16/04/2022 between Taormina-Giardini and Siracusa. I videoed out of the window from Catania C.le.
The train was RV5391 Messina-Siracusa, with three car unit Minuetto 02 in charge.
The video starts some footage I took of Minuetto 02 a couple of days earlier, at Giardini-Naxos. At the end, I have added some footage of the unit leaving Siracusa on the return services to Messina.

The line is really interesting- there is some quite fast running at times, but much of it is single track. This means there are some waits for trains coming in the other direction. There are also many sections of twisting line, often running through cuttings.

The route shows some of the amazing Sicilian scenery, including fertile volcanic plains, quarries, rough rocky landscapes and a little bit of industrial dystopia! All the way through, you can see prickly pear cacti, which grow around the line.
It is possible to get a good view of Mt Etna and there are some stunning glimpses of the Ionian Sea between Agnone and Augusta.

Siracusa station is now a terminus. However, it used to be a through station. Trains from Catania ran around the headland to the north and ran through the town to approach the station from the east. The line to Gela ran on to the west. In the late 1990s, a tunnel was built under Siracusa. The Catania line now runs through this, approaching via a new loop to the Gela line. So trains now approach from the west and the line around the headland is abandoned.

Index Points:
00:00:00 Minuetto 02 seen passing Giardini Naxos on a different day
00:00:14 Leaving Catania
00:02:28 Passing FCE depot and old Catania Porto station
00:03:00 Archi della Marina viaduct and galleria dell'Acquicella
00:04:42 Catania Aquicella (pass)
00:06:18 Catania Aeroporto Fontanarossa
00:08:21 Bicocca (pass) Palermo line departs
00:12:42 River Simeto
00:13:49 Passomartino (closed)
00:17:22 Galleria Valsavoia
00:17:35 Lentini Diramazione (closed) Gela line departs
00:20:39 Lentini
00:22:36 Mt Etna lurking in the haze from here to Brucoli
00:24:24 Agnone di Siracusa (closed)
00:25:47 Agnone Bagni (closed)
00:25:56 fantasticiew up the coast from Agnone to Catania and Mt Etna
00:27:47 Castellucio Siculo (closed)
00:31:31 Brucoli (closed)
00:35:33 Flamingos on the Saline Regina salt pan
00:36:39 Augusta
00:37:40 Fast Ferry Aelois Kenteris run aground on the salt marsh It is being stored here
00:38:54 Commercial Port of Augusta
00:39:59 Fiume Mulinello
00:41:37 Marcellino (closed)
00:42:18 Megara Gianalena (closed)
00:44:10 Priolo-Melilli (pass)
00:48:11 Targia (pass)
00:49:01 Original coast line to Siracusa carried on here
00:49:15 On the 1998 cutoff to the Gela line via Galleria Epipoli
00:51:07 Junction with Gela line (new depot on other side of track)
00:52:04 Old Siracusa depot
00:52:41 Arriving in Siracusa
00:53:30 Minuetto 02 returns to Messina