Our last day in Venice yielded some valuable lessons on how things are done in Italy and how best to leave this unique city.

First I researched the best exit route from the city; by water taxi, train, or bus, in order to rent a car. The train goes farther than wanted to rent a car, the water taxi is adealat 80€ for the hour long trip, or you can take the bus, a half hour ride, for 5€.

So we took the bus and saw, just as we left on the bus, that there was a car rental area just past the bus station. It didn’t really matter though, because once we got to the airport we learned that all of the rental companies require you, unlike most every other part of the world, to reserve the car at least a day in advance on-line, wether or not they have numerous cars available, which they did.So we took the bus back to Venice and instead got a train ticket to Florance with a connecting train to La Spezia.

 

 

Our train was a nice new air conditioned bullet train which had no problem speeding across the Italian countryside. We arrived in nearly no time at all, but then we received our second lesson; the connecting train ticket didn’t have a train number or departure time, just a to/from city. We had no idea if we were to board another train right away or wait 4 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once in Firenze (Florence) We waited in line to ask about the ticket, and found our train was to leave in half an hour, the previous ticket officiant had just failed to type in the information (an apparently common occurrence of “Not My Job” syndrome). So we waited for the status board to show us what track the train was going to arrive at.

Instead of the track number, we saw a Retardo of 20′ (20 minute delay) followed by 30 then 20 then 40 then 45. As delay times continued to mount for a number of trains, we saw another train get cancelled, but then suddenly we had a track number and they let us board. Having waited on the wrong end of the train station we raced to the other side to the train, put up our luggage, settled in, and struck up a conversation with a Danish man. Then after all that a steward came through the train yelling “Canceled”. Apparently there is a massive fire burning between Florence and Cinque Terre and the tracks had been shut down completely. …Whatever, it’s all part of the adventure. We found another train to Lucca which we are told will connect over to Cinque Terre, but we’ll see.

So now on the train toward Lucca, one of their older trains which is more a traveling sauna than a proper train, I did some research and noted, if we get off at Lucca there is no connecting train like the maintenance worker from Florence had told us. Rather we had to stay on the train until Viareggio then transfer, which is what we did.

Our last train, mercifully air conditioned, led us through the Carrara mountains. The quarry where Michelangelo selected the marble slab to create David is still in operation on the side of these beautiful mountains.

We arrived in La Spezia only and hour and a half later than had we been able to rent a car. We have a very nice hotel, the FHC, and walked into town to dine at a Sushi restaurant we found.

So the main lesson today, you just have expect nothing to go as planned, but God will always provide a way through.

ie “Don’t Panic”

Side notes:

1) Not once in the smaller trains did anyone ask for a ticket, it was similar with the bus and water bus, there is proximity card you use, but no one checks to see if you’ve actually used it.

2) Bizarre café in the Venice train station, you go to the counter and ask for, say, a ham panini, he tells you to go to the register to pay and get a ticket before he can give anything. So you go all the way over to the other side of the café to the cashier and assuming you can remember, in Italian, what you wanted to order, you tell the cashier. Pay. Then take the receipt back over to the first counter to get your Panini…. Oi!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Italy. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.