Saturday, August 25, 2012

While I was in Italy a few weeks ago, we had a few major getting where you re going (and oh my deity




At some point during each person s recollection of their most recent adventure is the story of the journey business travel agency vancouver . The story of how the person got to where they were going. Although the days to get to the destinations that are truly spectacular are often long and involve switching business travel agency vancouver between plane, cars, and trains, the combination usually provides the ultimate end destination.
While I was in Italy a few weeks ago, we had a few major getting where you re going (and oh my deity) moments using the Italian rail system. We needed to go from Bolzano in the very north of Italy to Rapallo, which is on the other side of the country on the coast. We looked online to check and see what all of our options were the evening before we left thinking we were being smart planning ahead. business travel agency vancouver After some searching, we found an itinerary business travel agency vancouver that looked like we would be able to stay on the same train the entire journey, so we opted for that one since it wouldn t require us to continually lug our suitcases on and off a million different trains.
About halfway through our 6 hour journey the conductor came by to punch our tickets and started saying no, no, no, no to us over and over again. After a very broken half Italian, business travel agency vancouver half English conversation, we figured out we were apparently supposed to change trains in Verona, even though our ticket business travel agency vancouver had zero indication of a train change, and the online timetable told us that this would be a  no train change itinerary.
We ended up in Bologna instead of Genoa (opposite sides of the country people), and were wondering how we had been such idiots and not figured this lovely nuance out before we got on the train. When we went to the help desk in the Bologna train station, we started explaining what had happened to the guy at the desk and asked if there was any way we were going to be able to make it to Rapallo that evening. After printing off 3 or 4 different schedule options and getting tired of us asking buckets of questions, he threw his hands in the air and ordered us to hand over our old tickets. He hand wrote something in Italian on all of them, told us to forget paying the change fee and just follow the schedule he had printed out for us. I have no idea what he wrote on our tickets, but each time we showed them to the conductor on the next 3 trains, they laughed and let us stay on the train. business travel agency vancouver Whatever our friend at the help desk wrote on our tickets business travel agency vancouver (even if it was let these stupid idiots business travel agency vancouver on your train, they don t speak Italian), he saved us 60 Euro and gave us a good story. And of course, best of all, we got to where we were going.
Sometimes trains split, so theoretically there would be no change if sitting in the right compartment. It s important to read the destination signs on the doors when boarding a carriage. Walking through the train to a spare seat can often mean ending up in the wrong half of the train if one doesn t pay attention.

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