trenitalia

I've said before, I'm a normal mid-twenty year old, but I've really never been on a train before. Until I arrived in Italy.Let me paint the picture for you. You've seen the suitcase - its huge. It weighs somewhere near 70 pounds and is just about as big as I am. The train from Florence to Rome was easy, roll bag to train station, heave bag onto train, leave in convenient little luggage room, retrieve from convenient little luggage room, throw off train, roll away. excellent. totally self-sufficient. The train from Rome to Siena was a little different. First, there was a train change involved. Second, we were no longer riding the Eurostar. Luckily I was travelling with a very nice friend who was rolling my bag and letting me roll the lighter one. But, the guilt that ensued - I hope it's worth it! We arrive at Termini, the train station in Rome, and found our train pretty easily - a little trouble understanding why we had three tickets and what it meant to "validate" them, but we figured it out. Now this train, no convenient room at the front of the car for oversized luggage, so we dragged it down the aisle (which was JUST as wide as my bag) into our compartment. put all of our other bags up on the overhead things, and then heave-ho, up goes the 70 pound bag onto an overhead shelf. I mentioned we had to change trains, so we verified with the Italian speaking compartment-mates how you pronounced "Chiusi". But then, the friendly announcement played (in both Italian and English) describing the stops that we would make, which included Chiusi. SO I fell asleep and my friend pulled out the laptop to get some work done. When I woke up I asked what time it was, 12:02. Knowing our tickets mentioned that we would arrive in Chiusi I said "Shut it down we gotta go!" So the computer shut down took a while, and in the meantime I am throwing all of our bags around (we were each carrying three). The laptop finally shut down and we threw the 70 pounds suitcase down from the overhead bin. Now, with all our bags in hand we push our way out of the compartment and an announcement "We will be arriving at train station in 1 minute" plays. Strapped with three carry-ons and my gigantic suitcase, I pushed my way to the front of the train. We got there just in time to get out the doors before they closed. phew. Until we realized that the train from Chuiusi to Siena was already in the station and leaving in 5 minutes. So we switched bags, so I had the light one, and off we went. Little did we know that this would involve two flights of stairs down, a little walk, and two flights up. Then onto another train, where I loaded all the other bags on one overhead shelf, and then we heaved the monster up as well. What a scene. And what a trooper my personal porter was - for real. And I am even able to send a small bag of stuff home with 'el porter' tomorrow. I'm so lucky!