Buongiorno a tutti! Welcome to On Location Italy. This week I am going to tell you about my first experience with the Italian railway system. My week began on a high when I finally found a flat that I liked in Verona. However, I had to wait at least a week before I could move in and so I decided to take the opportunity to visit some relatives in a beautiful little hilltop town from which many Scots-Italians originate called Barga in Tuscany.
Barga is further south than Verona, closer to central Italy and to get there I had to get four different trains. Unfortunately, my first time time using the Italian trains didn’t start off great. When I arrived at the train station, there was no sight of my first train. I asked the woman beside me if the train was in ritardo (“late”) to which she replied it was soppresso. I soon discovered that this meant that the train was cancelled. My journey back to Verona wasn’t much better. There was a sciopero (“strike”) in Tuscany and so the trains there were running late or delayed. This meant that I missed my coincidenza (“connection train”) to Verona. According to one of my new Italian friends scioperi (“strikes”) are quite common in Italy so I guess it’s something that I might need to look out for this year.
In spite of the less than smooth journey, I safely made it to Barga and back. And I must say, I would happily do the journey all over again to spend another weekend in the stunning medieval town with my family. It’s also just as well I had the opportunity to get to grips with the Italian trains since on my return I discovered that my flat is not as equipped as I first expected. My estate agent explained that there is a difference between arredato and corredato. The first is where my flat is furnished with things like a bed, wardrobe, table and chairs. The latter, however, would be if my flat was fully kitted out, for example with pots and pans, cutlery and other day to day things. Since my flat is only arredato it looks like I’ll have to take the train to the nearest Ikea after all.
I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog and I will be back with more On Location Italian soon. A presto.
