{"id":785,"date":"2013-02-28T17:53:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T16:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=785"},"modified":"2021-09-11T22:11:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T20:11:30","slug":"transportation-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/transportation-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Transportation in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Southern
Maybe I should just walk…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A while back I posted an article where I mentioned the \u201csciopero,\u201d or transportation strikes<\/a> which occur almost bi-monthly here in Rome, effectively paralyzing the city for 24 hours at a time.\u00a0 But perhaps my criticism was a bit unfair. The fact is public transportation in Italy works. Not always punctually and rarely efficiently, but it does work.<\/p>\n

I point this out because in most U.S. cities public transportation barely exists. Sure, in the big metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco there are some good options. \u00a0But for at least 95% of the U.S. population, life without a car is either impossible or miserable. Which is too bad, because I\u2019ve discovered that life without a car is truly joyous. I\u2019m not kidding. \u00a0I don\u2019t worry about maintenance, gas prices, traffic, auto insurance, accidents, or trying to find a place to park. Not to mention the huge expense of buying a car in the first place. And if I ever really need<\/i> a car for a weekend trip or something, I just rent one for a couple of days.<\/p>\n

\"transportation<\/a>
abbonamento mensile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rome has two (and a half) metro lines and a third one under construction (projected to be completed in 2016). There are also trams, buses, and commuter trains. For \u20ac35 a month, you get unlimited use of all of these options. It might be the best bargain in Europe, especially when you consider that gasoline in Rome is almost $10.00 per gallon!<\/p>\n

You can buy the monthly pass (abbonamento mesile<\/i>) at any tobacco shop (tabaccaio<\/i>) or newsstand (edicola<\/i>), or at any of the train stations. Otherwise a one-trip ticket costs \u20ac 1.50 for 100 minutes of use, which can include one ride on the metro plus bus connections.\u00a0 These can also be purchased at the above mentioned locations or from the vending machines around the train and metro stations.<\/p>\n

\"Attenzione!\"<\/a>
Attenzione!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course if you\u2019re really brave and have very little regard for your personal safety, you can always get a scooter or a motorcycle. It looks tempting, because people on scooters seem to go everywhere and park anywhere they want. \u00a0But for someone who\u00a0didn’t\u00a0grow up in the streets of Rome (even if you know how to ride a motorbike quite well) this amounts to suicide by proxy. I can only advise against it. Or at least make sure that your life insurance policy is up to date.<\/p>\n

“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.” –Yogi Berra<\/h2>\n

My favorite mode of transportation in Italy is the fast trains.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0always loved train travel, I don\u2019t know why. For one thing, it\u2019s so much more relaxing than either driving or, God forbid, air travel.\u00a0 I get mesmerized by watching the scenery go by or just writing in my journal. It\u2019s like those family road trips as a kid when Dad did all the driving and my sister and I were free to beat the shit out of each other\u2014I mean, play quietly\u2014in the backseat.<\/p>\n

Now mind you, I\u2019m talking about the high-speed trains and not the other types of trains. The high-speed trains include the ES (Eurostar) or the Frecce (designated on the Trenitalia web site as Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, and Frecciabianca). There is also the new Italo<\/i> brand, which offers fast service in 9 major cities. For example you can go from Turin to Sorrento in just over 6 hours. In Rome, note that the Italo<\/i> trains now stop at two stations: Tiburtina, AND\u00a0at Termini.<\/p>\n

\"transportation
Cattle Car to Marino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other types of trains are the InterCity trains and the Regional trains.\u00a0 The InterCity are not a bad option if you\u2019re just traveling from city to city\u2014for example, from Rome to Orvieto or something like that.\u00a0 However I\u2019d be cautious about the Regional trains, which often double as cattle cars in low season (no warning given).<\/p>\n

In October of 2011 we had made plans to go to Marino for the day to enjoy the Sagra del Vino (Wine Festival). We bought our ticket at the station from an automatic machine.\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 But when we found our train at the far end of Termini station, we discovered that it had been \u201cslightly\u201d oversold.\u00a0 This is an actual photo:<\/p>\n

So unfortunately, we didn\u2019t go to Marino that day, and we also lost the money for the train tickets.\u00a0 We tried to get a refund, but all we received was a laugh in the face.<\/p>\n

For longer trips, there are times when a low-cost airline seems like a time and money saver.\u00a0 However, you really need to consider this option carefully.\u00a0 A couple years ago we took a trip to Venice for a long weekend and it turned out that the cost of the plane was actually about 25% less than the train.<\/p>\n

At first glance, the plane was also faster; one hour versus three and a half.\u00a0 But this is misleading since you have to travel to the airport (45 minutes for us), get to airport early for security checks (1 hour), wait for your plane (ours was 1 hour late), and then get from the Venice airport to the city center (another 45 minutes).\u00a0 By contrast, the train takes you from city center to city center and so when you add up the total travel time, it would have actually taken about an hour less by train\u2014and with a lot less stress.\u00a0 I won\u2019t make that mistake again.<\/p>\n

So take my advice, let go of your car dependency<\/a> (there are 12-step programs available) and check out the Train Tickets and Schedules. It\u2019s cheaper, more relaxing, and if you\u2019re traveling with a sibling, you can relive those carefree days of your youth when Dad would threaten to \u201cpull the car over and give you something to cry about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back I posted an article where I mentioned the \u201csciopero,\u201d or transportation strikes which occur almost bi-monthly here in Rome, effectively paralyzing the city for 24 hours at a time.\u00a0 But perhaps my criticism was a bit unfair. The fact is public transportation in Italy works. Not always punctually and rarely efficiently, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4,66],"tags":[108,109,105,15,106,104,14,25,110,107],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}