Italy by Train from Florence

When taking the train in Italy I count the number of stations before I must get off so even if I do not see the station name I will be at the correct stop.
So on Sunday when i took a short day trip (1/2hr) from Florence to one of the charming medieval towns to the north, I counted 4 stops.

What a surprise to find there was a Chocolate festival int eh main square......yummm.

One of the many counter of chocolate....

But a bigger treat was to meet Marta Benini.   Marta was working at the tourist office on Sunday morning and even though she was scheduled to close for the day she continued to chat with me about the project I am researching on this trip:   Italian Christmas Traditions.

Marta

I am sure there are many surprises down the old lanes of this town..

 

What a nice surprise to find that Marta also does translations and gives lessons in Italian.    With a short hop on the train outside of Florence, you can experience a lesson within the ancient walls of Prato.    The town is easy to walk around with many pedestrian only streets.  Although everything was closed (Sunday) it appeared to be a very good shopping hub.

My only problem was I had planned to go to Pistoia!   There was an extra stop in Prato (2 train stations).  Never mind, once i found the train station I continued on my quest for Pistoia.


Posts from the Past

When I took my sabbatical to Sorrento in 2008, I wrote a few short travel entries on a site that has actually kept them this long.

I am posting them here to keep my entire story at one location but shall comment on them at a later date to compare what I have learned about going Home to Italy as an Italian American.

Some things like the bus have never changed, but as soon as I land in Italy, either by plane or ship, I immediately feel different and it is STILL difficult to explain.

Does the bus stop here? solo traveler attempts to live "Italian" in Italy!

Written by: lee laurino

After working 30+ years and planning a sabbatical it finally may happen! Questions to be answered: Will I like a quiet village after years in a large city? Can I live without chain restaurants? Will I miss the evening news? Will I become tired of the bello men that I can watch while sitting in the cafe over a REAL cup of coffee? All to be discovered as a second generation Italian tries the bella vita. This is not a vacation trip, but it will be relaxing. This is not the yearly convention business trip, it will be longer than 5 days. This is a test for 3 months to find out if I can live in Italy, solo.  This is a time to learn Italian, to search for a place I can settle in and not just be 'the American who lives in the apartment on via Barci. And this is the time to learn to ride the BUS

The bus does not come until Tuesday?

Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Apr 25, 2007

I am scheduled  to leave on Tuesday but a business "situation" is keeping me in town.
Same thing has happened for the past 3 years but this year is a go or else.

So far no ticket, no hotel, no worries.

I found an English instructor (Italian woman) who will meet me mornings in Rome and teach me "survival Italian".  How to find a public bathroom, how to ask directions, where to go to find hair mouse and how to ride the bus.

Most of my colleagues know the story of my venture to Fuiggi 2 years ago to attend the Remax Italia convention:  Taking the train to the wrong station (talking too long to the lovely man in the seat next to me) and getting off in suburbia with a suitcase.   In my poor Italian I bought a bus ticket and asked where to board the bus, what number etc.

I can count to 10 (in Italian) but write that number down and I can go to a  milione (million).
Got the ticket, headed to the bus area to find 20 buses and 20 busmen taking their break and 1,000 school children waiting to go home.   I would not go near that situation for anything in the USA but I forge ahead to ask "where is the bus" to Fiuggi? 

Alberobello Italy, a history of wood carving

As  I find myself returning Home to Italy for my 2012 adventure I reviewed all the interesting people I met on my trip last year:  the woman in a Venice bead shop who spoke little English but willingly spoke to me about learning to use a computer.

The vendor in one of the food markets in Florence who shared samples of cheese with me and was not angry that I could not buy any of his products since I would have surrendered it at immigration.

I found a business card from a man who did an extraordinary kindness for me during a downpour in Alberobello, Puglia.   During a torrential downpour when the street became a small river, he walked across the flooded street to give me his umbrella! 

I posted on You Tube the chat I videoed the next day when I returned the umbrella.

But I realized I had not posted this on Home to Italy.    He was such a delightful person he deserves to be recognized for his kindness and perhaps by my ‘paying it forward’. 

Now perhaps I can make him better known as a member of a wood carving family that have crafted olive wood into some wonderful works of art.

L’Arte dell’ Artigianto

In Alberobello, Italy.  This is a Unesco town in Puglia.   You feel as if you are in the village where the 7 dwarfs lived.   Amazing conical structures that are unique to Puglia, Italy

cover a large portion of the town.
They are private home, restaurants, shops and even the guest house I stayed in.

Far better than disney world and filled with very kind people.

A simple act of kindness that I shall not forget.   Would this happen while traveling in the USA?