The most frustrating time on the trains can be Florence S.M.N. The letters could easily stand for ‘so many new platforms’ instead of Santa Maria Novella as they have an annoying pastime of switching tracks on you. You have to listen to the announcements very carefully. They do them in both English and Italian but as soon as one train is late arriving they start shuffling the rest of the platforms like a deck of cards. With a group of 12 individuals one day we were waiting an extra 45 minutes for the train to Venice, supposedly arriving on track 11, then it was track 9, then it was back to track 11 at the very last minute. We broke the rules and ended up hurling packs across the train tracks onto the end carriage as the guard blew his whistle for the departure and we had some stragglers who hadn’t heard the change walking back from the sandwich bar. Everybody made it with a sprint finish.

On the contrary, in Venice the train guard was very accommodating when I had lost an American passenger between the baggage depot and the train in the short space of about 10 minutes. I explained she was late and he smiled, said ok, and waited an extra 5 minutes with me. Eventually he tapped his watch and we had to abandon her. This was the last train out of Italy to Austria that day so I wasn’t sure when I’d see her again. When I eventually did she had an awesome adventure to tell, but that’s entirely another story.

For point to point travel you can’t beat the Italian trains for good value, not just in the price because with a train ticket you get so much more than just a seat. Sometimes you don’t even always get a seat, especially if it’s in the middle of August, but you get a fantastic opportunity to experience the local culture that just can’t be had from a guide book or the inside of a bus.