The summer of 2011, I took my younger son to Italy. He wanted to go to Rome and Venice. We flew into Rome and spent a few days, then we went by train to Venice. We spent a few days there and then rode the train back to Rome for a few more days in the Eternal City.
European trains are very clean and efficient. They run on time and get you there on time as well. I love that. We saw some beautiful countryside including several fields of sunflowers that I tried and tried to get a picture of from the window. The train moved so fast that all you will see in the picture I’m posting here is a yellow blur, but trust me, it was beautiful!
For a while on one of the trains there were two couples in the seats across from us that were the stereotype for obnoxious Americans. It made me cringe to hear them talking. They wanted the entire first class car to know the men were doctors. The one guy even went so far as to show the couple across from them (their travel companions) pictures on his iPhone of patients he’d done tummy tucks and breast work on. This really made me almost come unglued since there is such a thing as confidentiality. My son was as aghast as I was.
So, other than two obnoxious docs and their wives, we enjoyed the ride.
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
Beautiful, Jillian…thanks so much for posting the pictures! I’m half Italian and except for one cousin,(who was in Europe in the Army), none of us have had the chance to go to Italy…and it seems like every one I know who has gone there has NOT been Italian!(Even my in-laws…gnaw, gnash!).
One day….one day…or so we keep promising ourselves.
Thank you for being a Beautiful American and not only cringing at those doctors,(who should have their licenses revoked), but for going against the grain and saying that Italy is clean. Most Americans see bad old movies or hear about slums, poverty and filth and THAT is their Idea of Italians.Even those who have visited Italy generally focus on the negatives when it comes to the reviews of their trips; I think it makes them feel clever or superior…it certainly gives me the opposite impression.
I hope if you go again and pass through Umbria,(as you probably did, traveling Venice-Rome by train), please wave out the window as you could well be greeting a relative of mine…or drop down the Adiatic coast.I know a singer/songwriter/record producer in Senegalia.If you stand on THAT coast, you can wave to some of my husband’s relatives across the Adriatic!
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I adore Italy, Tonette. I first went when I was 19 and it’s a lovely, lovely place. I plan to return sometime before I die- or at least I hope to. Umbria is gorgeous as well. The alps are also spectacular. It’s a great place for culture, food and visiting with locals. They’re super friendly and nice.
And yeah, those docs needed their licenses taken. Unreal.
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They certainly know how to do trains. We went on from the coast into Berlin. It was a commuter and nothing you’d want to spend much time on.
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Yeah, I bet. I DO love that they have rail travel down to a science there. The UK has it done well as well.
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The pictures are great, even the sunflower one. 🙂 What a great trip you and your son had, eh?
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Thanks Laurie. We did have a wonderful time.
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I’d love to visit southern Italy some day. But I’d have to travel with someone who knew the language and knew the places to go (and NOT to go).
Funny to hear your comment about European trains. Part of my post (this Thurs.) — which I had to delete because of space limitations — dealt with my experience on AmTrack when I was talking to a fellow passanger (whom I only later discovered was an AmTrack executive). I made the observation that the system (Birmingham AL station) was disorganized, very lax in security, and the incoming train was late. “I thought trains were all compulsive about timetables.” I said rhetorically.
His reply: “You’re thinking about trains in Europe.”
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That’s true, Jeff. They are very worried about timetables. We don’t have Amtrak here anymore where I live. Sad, really.
I hope you get to Italy. It’s lovely.
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Why SOUTHERN Italy,Jeff? You’ll miss my relatives!
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too much arthritis in my hips … can’t climb mountains anymore
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Oh, I understand, not in the Alps…well, my people are just north of Rome and when talking to Italians, you have to understand that SOUTHERN Italy to them anything from somewhere south of Rome,(not ‘non-Tyrolian’). And believe me, Italians divide it up as bad as people here do north and south of the Mason-Dixon line!
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