We were so confident travelling around that we forgot that train strikes are a frequent occurrence in Italy. It wasn't until we got to the station in Varenna this morning that we realised that there was indeed a train strike today. We'd already booked and paid for two train journeys and Varenna is an unstaffed station so there was a distinct lack of people to ask. Soon a small band of anxious tourists gathered to listen to the rare incomprehensible announcements on the tannoy about the trains which were cancelled, including our first train.
Miraculously an American couple had quite good Italian so were able to decipher the announcements, which were full of numbers, as that's how Trenitalia talk about their trains. And then after a small panic when we wondered how on earth we were going to get to our hotel at Verona from Milan, when we couldn't even get to Milan, we managed to form a small group of anxious travellers and negotiated a minibus to Milan for five of us, expensive but not bad when shared.
It was still quite stressful as we didn't know if we'd get to Milan in time for our connection, and then we didn't know if the strike action would affect this train, as most were cancelled. Wonderfully we got there with twenty minutes to spare and our train was one of the few still running so we made it to Verona, what a relief.
It's a lovely city if you ignore the ridiculous stuff about Juliet's house, which is of course a construct. Lots of historic buildings and the river Adige sweeping around the centre. Our hotel is in a quiet street near the Arena, and we're planning to get a Verona Card tomorrow to start exploring.
Miraculously an American couple had quite good Italian so were able to decipher the announcements, which were full of numbers, as that's how Trenitalia talk about their trains. And then after a small panic when we wondered how on earth we were going to get to our hotel at Verona from Milan, when we couldn't even get to Milan, we managed to form a small group of anxious travellers and negotiated a minibus to Milan for five of us, expensive but not bad when shared.
It was still quite stressful as we didn't know if we'd get to Milan in time for our connection, and then we didn't know if the strike action would affect this train, as most were cancelled. Wonderfully we got there with twenty minutes to spare and our train was one of the few still running so we made it to Verona, what a relief.
It's a lovely city if you ignore the ridiculous stuff about Juliet's house, which is of course a construct. Lots of historic buildings and the river Adige sweeping around the centre. Our hotel is in a quiet street near the Arena, and we're planning to get a Verona Card tomorrow to start exploring.
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