Train

Hey all,

Up again the next morning, back to the train station where we waited to get on to the train to Florence.  This turned out to be a drama – it was the evening of December 23rd – it was like a fight to the death getting on to the train – people shouting, passing luggage through windows, shoving, running here and there – and after we had finally got a cabin and collapsed in a shocked and exhausted kind of way were were shouted at by some man to move – it turned out that although our tickets did not have reserved seats, most of the people on the train did...  Getting off that carriage and back on to the platform was even trickier than getting on to it – K managed to squeeze out but I had both backpacks at this point and no one would move.  In the end I gave up trying to be polite about it and just kind of shoved through, leaving smeared bits of Italians dripping from the walls behind me – at this point I didn't really mind – the more carnage the better.

After asking directions several times we finally found one of the carriages which did not need reserved seating.  I still had both packs so K squeezed in to see if she could find some seats.  Despite the fact that the corridor was full of people sitting on their luggage she managed to find a cabin with two spare seats.  I eventually struggled my way in and then started four hours of grotesque rudeness from the four low-browed ill-bred thugs who were already there.  A lot of malevolent glaring, general intimidation tactics and I would assume rude comments in Italian.  K sat in the corner, both annoyed at them and a little nervous at some of their antics, like when one of them, who had been sprawling all over my seat, got fed up with me “accidentally” elbowing him and jumped to his feet and stood in the doorway, legs spread, arms crossed, and just stood there and glared at me.  I didn't really mind at the time, figured he could glare all he wanted to so long as he got off my seat (besides which, he had BO, so didn't mind glaring if it was from a distance), but it was all a little sinister with the four of them, two just lurking, the other two being actively menacing, and I did at one stage make a point of slowly making a sandwich with evil looking Corsican knife...

Later we googled the final destination of the train, found out that it was the middle of Sicily.  I realised there might have been A Reason none of the Italians got in that cabin despite there being two spare seats and a whole lot of people piled up in the corridor.  Suddenly a lot less sanguine about consequences of elbowing one of them repeatedly; and the bit of theatre with the Corsican knife felt maybe a bit stupid...

But we did make it, in the end, to Florence, without getting stabbed or beaten to death, found our hotel, and then walked around Florence in the middle of the night, which was lovely – we hopped over the rails of the bridge below the Ponte Vecchio, sat there on the big angled pylon which holds it up, and just admired the view for a while – something I have wanted to do with K since I first got here months ago.

Went to bed, happy to be somewhere in central Florence where we would be staying for four days (it later turned into nearly about 10 because I was too sick to travel).  Both needed to catch our breath a bit - looking back agree that France was a blast and we did get to see a lot, but that much travel that quickly is harder work than you would think.

Photos.  1.  K using magic stick internet in the station at Milan before train nightmare began.  2.  A terrible photo, but I put it in cause it was a nice moment – sitting there on the bridge above flood waters with K,  having been in the middle of France in a hired car only a couple of days ago, then by car, bus, train, plane, train and a lot of walking, finally getting to Florence having survived passengers on train....

Cheers, B