For years, I had been passing by an old abandoned train station that had always fascinated me, especially because of the strange name written on its facade, Mandarano.

Driven by my ongoing quest for abandoned places, I went to photograph it, and that day, my encounter with a shepherd from the area was extraordinary.

He told me that it wasn't just an isolated station but part of a railway line that had been abandoned by time and people. There were other stations along the same line, also abandoned; it was the Motta S. Anastasia-Regalbuto line, a railway that survived thanks to the transportation of oranges and the rich presence of citrus groves in the area, hence its nickname "the Orange Grove Road".

The Motta-Regalbuto line was initially opened only up to Schettino, and it wasn't until the 1950s that it was extended to Regalbuto. Agnelleria, Ritornella, Paternò, Regalbuto, Mandarano, Carcaci, Leto, and Sparacollo were the stations along this historic railway line.

However, all of this lasted only for a few years. Around 1982, it reduced to a single morning run and, in 1984, passenger traffic was definitively suspended. Then, in 1993, the curtain fell on the line.

Today, everything is reduced to a poetic ensemble of abandoned stations left there, motionless, unaware victims of abandonment by a man incapable of seeing beyond mere economic return. This marks the beginning of a journey without a train; we are the train, and the silence of the places reminds us of it... So, we await the next ride, close our eyes... And off we go.