Trains (and other things) in Italy

Italian Trains
We have been travelling extensively on the Italian Trains. There have been some strange moments, as with the "First Class Sleeping Car" mentioned earlier in the blog. Another was when we had reserved seats in Carriage 4. The train had carriages 1-3 and 5-9 but no four. Where 4 was supposed to be, there was some sort of Baggage Car, with no windows! Were we supposed to go inside?

I (David) showed our ticket to a conductor and he said that this was the wrong train and we needed to await the next one. This seemed a little strange as the time for departure was approaching. Then Penny discovered the train number somewhere on the side and it matched our ticket.

So far, all numbering seems to be done on pieces of paper, often handwritten and taped to windows of the carriages.

So, I approached a different train employee with my ticket and he told me to go to the first conductor, which I did. This time, that conductor told us to go to carriage 8 or 9.....back at the end of the train. There was another conductor there and she said (with a gay laugh)  "I suppose you have found that carriage four is missing?" I said "yes" and she said to get on carriage eight and sit anywhere we wished. So, the journey then continued uneventfully.

Quite a few things are broken in Italy- perhaps a result of the economic crisis or perhaps the way it has always been. Many phone boxes do not work (perhaps this is a way of phasing them out) and it is common for there to be no flushing water or washing water in the train "bathrooms" as trains only seem to go back to their depots infrequently.

However, the seats are typically comfortable. Sometime there is room for everyones' bags and sometimes not, depending upon style and age of the carriage.

We had heard that Italian trains are not very timely and indeed this has been our experience. At Roma Central, nearly every one of the trains has been 5-30mins late and about 15% cancelled. A lady with whom we spoke last night had just arrived on a train that was running one hour late. We had one train that actually caught up 10mins over several hours but another went from 15mins late to 30mins late so that we missed a connection.

Buses are typically quite comfortable (but not Rome city buses which are slow (because of traffic) and very crowded and fairly grubby. The Metro can also be very crowded but is extremely fast and services are very frequent. Using the Metro, you can cross most of Rome in about half an hour.

We took one (approx 3hr) cross country bus that was clean and comfortable. Perhaps it was a mistake to take the front right hand seats because we could see what the driver was doing. He was actually quite a skilful driver, but like many Italians needed to be talking most of the time. This he did on his mobile phone which he held glued to his left ear while he used the right hand to gesticulate frequently, takinbg his only spare hand off the wheel. He always grabbed it again just before the next tight bend. It was much worse when he ran out of friends to call and started doing text messages and looking up things on the internet....no hands or eyes in use for driving the bus. This was particularly scary on the A1 Autoroute. However, fortunately he only went about 95 on the autoroutes. He saved speeding for 40 km/hr zones where he typically did 80! We arrived very early at our destination and were relieved to get on a train where we could not see what the driver did and there was much less chance of an accident.

While on trains, we came to CinqueTerre on the Mediterranean. They have carved amazing train tunnels through the solid rock cliffs and right on the edge of the ocean. So, you get very brief flashes of ocean between tunnels or at stations, which are also right on the edge of the sea. At one station, you have to be in the centre of the train if you want to get off because the other ends of the train are in the tunnels while the centre part is in the station.

We do not recommend eating the (supposedly) fresh food on Italian Trains. Penny's sister got very ill from that a couple of years back and when we tried the "food" we found it absolutely stale and apparently many days old...as well as being overpriced. So, take a banana and water or something similar.

Best Regards,
Dave and Penny