On Tuesday, we were up at the crack of dawn so that we could take the 6:39 am Rail Jet train from Vienna to Castelrotto, near Bolzano in the northern part of Italy. Mike and I visited Bolzano a number of years ago and thought we would like to come back to this area to explore the nearby Dolomites. This was our chance!
Castelrotto and Bolzano are in Italy, but they really span the border between Italy and Austria. As a result, there is quite a mix of cultures here. At any given time, you will hear Italian and German being spoken, sometimes in the same sentence. There is also a mix of Italian and German food, both of which we love. So, we are looking forward to this leg of our trip!
As you know, Mike is a train nut and has studied the different types of trains that are available for travel in different parts of Europe. The Rail Jet is an Austrian train that moves at lightening speed….maybe not quite that fast, but this little gem clips right along at about 135 miles per hour. Not too shabby! It also has great first class service. The leather seats recline a little and there is a decent foot rest. A very nice server comes around and brings you a snack or a drink as you zip along. Really first class!
We are glad about having this luxury to start the day out, as we would be on the train for most of the day! What we are NOT glad about is that we are only on this really nice train for the first part of our trip! We will be on an Italian train for the last leg, which we know will not be as nice. The Italian trains never are. We’ll see what happens!
The first leg of the trip was even more delightful than we anticipated. We lounged around in first class luxury drinking cappucino and eating a snack as we viewed the beautiful scenery. Some of us went to the dining car later on and had more coffee. Just lovely. But, finally, we reached Innsbruck, where we were required to change to the Italian train. What a change it was!
The train was laid out in the 6 seat compartment format that we had been in earlier, which was OK. But, this time, we were unable to find a compartment that was empty. Finally, we settled on one where 2 women were sitting. Gene and I had middle seats and Mike and Carrie were in the aisle. We all had about the same amount of luggage, which was too much for the overhead racks. So, Gene and I had our carry on luggage under our feet…not ideal, but certainly doable.
We all got comfortable and the woman sitting next to Gene looked at me and began to talk. You may remember my story about people telling me their stories. Well……..here we go again. UGHH!
After we all exchanged information about where we were from and where we were going, this woman began to tell us about her estranged daughter. About a year ago, the daughter had gone to a therapist and discovered that she had issues with this woman and had stopped talking to her. The woman went on and on about how this really wasn’t her problem, but her daughter’s issue. After all, if it really WAS a problem, why is this just coming up now. She went on and on and we all listened….blah……blah…….blah……….
UNTIL………
……….the conductor came in to check our tickets. Gene handed over his rail pass. The conductor looked it over and said, “Where is your reservation?”
You may recall from a previous post, that some trains require reservations, but not all. We knew this and had checked it out……actually twice…….with 2 different rail ticket offices. We were told…..twice…..that this train did not require a reservation. But, here we were face to face with the conductor who said that we needed a reservation. GEEZ…….
Gene and I both told the conductor that we were told we didn’t need the reservation. He looked at both of us and said, “Where is your reservation?” $11 Euros each later, we were still on the train in our middle seats with our feet propped on on our luggage. And, we got to pay for the privilege of doing so. See what I mean about Italian trains?!!
Mike is not always a fan of Italian trains….or Italy…for that matter. The fact that we will be spending so much time in Italy on this trip is really quite something. But, our train experience, is a good example of Mike’s issue with the Italians. His opinion formed early on while traveling in Italy in the 60’s. He had some experiences that were equally as mystifying as the reservation issue. When we settled back in after our confrontation with the conductor, Mike began to tell stories of his prior visits to Italy. He spoke of a policeman coming out from nowhere when he was trying to park a car (more than once) and forcing him out of the space, a hotel clerk chasing him down the street because he refused to pay a new tax that was imposed on the room as he was checking out, and a comical view of cars in a roundabout chasing each other and beeping their horns….they just continued to go ’round and ’round and beeping and beeping.
Carrie finally wondered out loud, “Why do they do these things that don’t seem to make sense.”
Mike said, “IT’S ITALY…..who knows?”
So, when we got to the car rental place in Bolzano to pick up the car that Gene had so painstakingly searched for so that we could drive into the Dolomites, and they didn’t have the reservation, we all looked at each other and said in unison…..
“IT’S ITALY”….
Finally, we did get our car and made it to our hotel. We were greeted by an Italian, who I’m sure is really a German. He handed Gene and me each a set of 3 keys that came with specific instructions. One key was for our room and one key was for the outside doors (they lock the doors at 7:00 pm). The other key was to release the gate for the parking area.
The Italian German looked at me and in a very clipped German accented English said,
“You will use this key to release the gate for the parking. No one ever remembers this and I am frequently awakened at 3:00 am to come down and let people in with their cars. You will remember this. I don’t want to be awakened because you can’t release the gate.”
“YA VOHL….YES SIR!”
Well…..”IT’S ITALY”……what can I say?!
Travel With Betsy 
October 20, 2013 at 4:16 am |
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