Train station

Look for this machine to stamp your ticket!

The not-so veloce self-service kiosk

A new experience in Italy for me was a train station.  In Kansas public transportation is limited to within cities, but in Florence one can get a train to anywhere else in the country.  The train station wasn’t anything like what I was expecting either.  So first lesson is don’t come with preconceived notions about train travel.  Second lesson buy train tickets at least the day before you want to travel.  If you wait until the day you want to depart there is added stress of the line and catching the train at the time you want.  The train station is always a bustle with people coming and going from Florence since it is a hot tourist destination.  I had a bad experience where the self service kiosks kept shutting down while people were trying to buy their tickets.  People became very irate.  When my group finally reached the kiosk for our turn we were preparing to buy our ticket when the man behind us was cursing us out to hurry up because he was going to miss his train.  One must realize that it was not my fault he was going to miss his train.  It was his fault for not being early and prepared; better early than late I always say.  The last and maybe the most important thing to remember about train travel is to validate your ticket.  They always come by and check your ticket once the train is moving, so avoid the hassle of a fine by finding a yellow box, usually located at the entrance of the track, and make sure to validate your ticket!  Buon Viaggio! --Janel Wietharn

3 useful words: Partenza=Departure, Arrivo=Arrival, and Convalida=Validate