Sunday, November 13, 2011

Headaches

I have come to terms with the fact that Rome and I don't get along in terms of public transportation. Almost every single time I have to take a train through, to, or out of Rome, something goes wrong-the train is late (which is the most common irritant I've experienced), not coming at all, broke down, going to a different platform, etc. etc. Italy is a civilized, developed first-world country, and trains have been around in some capacity (wheels on a fixed track) for thousands of years (the modern train perfected in 1822), and somehow, Italy still hasn't managed to come up with a solution to make their trains run on time. At first it was cute, but when you are banking on the last train home to come at 10:00 at night, on time, with no problems, right about when the atmosphere of the train station changes from bustling to sketchy, I've realized you can't hold your breath. This happened when we were waiting for our 8:45 train to Perugia. We waited for two hours for our train to come, constantly checking if they had even posted an arrival platform (to no avail). So we waited and waited, and finally got on. Since it was so late, we had to get off at Foligno, and from there take a bus to the Perugia train station, since the train stops going to Perugia at a certain time. On top of that, our train was delayed during the trip, so we had to wait for the next bus to come, half an hour later. When we finally reached the Perugia train station, I, in broken Italian, had to call a taxi who would take us up to the center. Getting home at 1 in the morning was not what we were planning on. At this point, I would say that I've become an incredibly well-seasoned traveler in Italy. As long as I don't have to sleep in the Termini station at any point in time, I feel like that would be an accomplishment. I'm starting to think that sniffing out platform 9 and 3/4 would prove more successful than arriving anywhere in Italy by train on time.

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