Italy 2012 – Cortona to Venice

Today we got up early, but not as early as we had planned. The plan was to start walking down to the car at 7:30 but we really didn’t get up until then, so we made it out closer to 8. We dragged our bags down the steep “Via” to our car, loaded up, and started down the hill, following signs to Firenze and the A1. After a really cool drive through curving country roads we got to the A1 and were cruising north toward Firenze at the usual 135kph.

The plan was to follow our printed map to the Europcar to return our rental, take a taxi to the train station, then hop on the high-speed train to Venice. All was well until we drove past where the exit was supposed to be, but never saw it. There was a lot of road construction in the area and it looks like they closed (permanently or temporarily, we aren’t sure) the exit we were looking for. So we took the next major exit to Firenze, paid the €6 toll, and pulled over to find a new route. After consulting Google Maps, we decided to brave the side streets that went sort of through but mostly around the city core.

Wow, traffic in Florence is bad, and we didn’t even get to the center of the city. The “navigator” missed a turn which sent us on a very wide loop into the same traffic we had already gone through, but in the end we made it to the Europcar office. Calling for a taxi was amazing, the Europcar guy just pushed a button on a little box, and it told him which taxi number (10) and how many minutes away (4) it was. So we walked out to the street and just about on time he was there (a fairly new Mercedes wagon).

We rode over to the Florence (S M N) train station where it turns out trains are vastly simpler to get on than it may appear.
The station was very busy, with an outer ticketing section and an inner waiting area with platforms for each rail. Several large electronic signs show arriving and departing trains and associated information. What was strange is that no one ever checked our tickets (we’ve had them since we left home.) Further, there was absolutely zero security to go through with your bags. You can literally walk off the street, straight onto a train, with no checkpoints of any kind. Even once we were on the train, still no one checked our tickets.

Another thing, the departure/arrival signs are somewhat misleading if the trains are off schedule. For example, our train was scheduled to depart at 11:25am and at 11:26, the departures sign still showed departure time as 11:25 with no delay. However, the arrivals sign showed the incoming train arrival as 11:35, clearly later than planned, however still the delay field was blank. It gets a little worrisome when your train was supposed to depart 10 minutes ago, you still haven’t seen a platform number, and no delay has been noted.

There is no organized boarding/departure process for the train either. While people are disembarking from their coach, all of the passengers waiting to board are crowding the door and slowing down everything. Meanwhile, two guys are grabbing bags to help people get aboard quicker, but after you get on board they put their hand out waiting for a tip and stare at you. This is, in fact, the first time I’ve ever seen anyone even so much as indicate that they would like a tip in Italy.

The seats on the train are very comfortable, better than the plane by a good margin. It’s smooth and quiet and fast. Food on the train, however, is pretty expensive and not all that great. We had first class tickets and were seated in Coach 1, which we have forever renamed as American Class, since the entire coach was filled with American tourists. The couple behind us was from Austin, Texas and were on their honeymoon. Others were older, closer to retirement age, many of which had taken a transatlantic “repositioning” cruise and were winding their way through Europe before flying home.

2 hours later we arrived in Venice and found our Pre-arranged private water taxi, and off to our Hotel, the Pallazo Stern.

After checking in around 2:30pm and unloading our stuff in our room, we took a nap. We’ll go out in the evening before dinner and check out the sights.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad