You’d think, given all of the physics, maths and engineering that I do, that it would make sense for my life dream to be something in that field. Whilst yes it would be very cool to be at the forefront of rocket technology, alas my life dream is completely unrelated to the field which I excell at.

Instead, I think my life dream is to one day have my own BBC 2 show where I go on adventures and tell people about the history of where I am whilst advertising all of the local culture. To spend everyday somewhere new and meet so many incredible people, now that’s the dream!

Today is my audition for such a thing. As I need to get a train along the length of Italy and pass through numerous cities. I hope to share stories of my travels and be a proper advertisement for the Italian countryside.

So join me, Cassie, on my Great Italian Railway Journey!

Torino

We begin our journey today in the Northwestern city of Torino, known internationally as Turin. This is where I’ve been living for two weeks now and I must say I have absolutely fallen in love with it. I implore you to read my other posts about the cafe I frequent and the many sights around the city to learn more.

Torino is where I join the train. It’s destination? Rome! My final stop on the journey and where I will be living for the next week.

I got myself comfortable in my seat, and once the train started moving, I got my book out. For this kind of journey through Europe, there was only one book that seemed appropriate…

Reading Corner

Murder on the Orient Express

A classic by Christie. Telling the story of a mysterious murder aboard a snowdrifted train and it’s solving by the world famous detective: Hercule Poirot!

Through my journey today, I only managed to read about two thirds of the book. Things are certainly heating up though, and I’ll be certain to finish it off when I get the chance!

First Class Passenger

Italian trains have much more value for money than British trains. My entire journey today is €45, and I even splashed out for first class tickets so that I could travel in comfort!

All of the announcements for the train are in both Italian and English, surprisingly helpful for me to learn some more specific words in the language.

A little while after the train set off, some of the train staff came by and passed out a few complimentary items! Nothing too fancy, some biscuits, a water bottle, and some wipes. Nevertheless, I always love to get free stuff 🙂

I spent the next hour enjoying the train journey. Admiring the Italian countryside out of the window, and gasping at the revelations of Poirot’s investigation. Soon enough though, we arrived at the first stop…

Milano

Milan is the most populated city in Italy, and the fourth most populated city in the EU! It’s such a big city I actually have to make three different stops through the city as the train travels through.

My view from the train is limited, and I wouldn’t want to bore you with views of the train station so instead here’s some more fun facts about the city!

The river Po which runs through Turin also runs near to Milan on it’s way to the East coast! Two other nearby rivers are the Ticino and the Adda, and small canals are brought from these rivers to the city centre.

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My train continued on through the North of Italy. The suburbs of Milan gave way to rolling hills and vineyards, the kind of visuals you’d see in romantic movies and desktop backgrounds. Yet here I was seeing it with my own eyes.

Whilst I was in Milan, an old man got on the train and sat opposite from me. I said hello, asked them how they were doing and continued with my book not wanting to disturb their travels. About midway between Milan and my next stop the kind old man held his phone up to me. Not wanting to be rude I looked at what he was showing me…

Now, you’re going to need a bit of backstory here. Ever since I’ve started living in Italy, I’ve gotten a lot of compliments. I mean a LOT of compliments. I’m not trying to make myself sound amazing it just genuinely keeps happening when I walk down the street. My friends here in Italy tell me it’s a common thing, that Italians are much more open about compliments and will tend to give them to anyone and everyone. Still the little burst of joy after I remember the translation of “My God you are beautiful” is making my trip a lot of fun. Anyway, back to the phone…

On the screen, there was a picture of a painting. The girl on the painting was beautiful, albeit a little glum and looking downwards to the floor.

“Sei tu!” the old man said. It’s you!

Took me a second I have to admit, first to figure out what he said, then to figure out what he was saying. I was slightly flabbergasted, a little lost for words, but managed to thank the man!

I’ve been looking for the painting online since, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. I have a feeling it will appear to me again when the time is right, for now I can just happily live with the memory of that kind man.

Bologna

Pronounced Bol-own-ya, not Baloney as some Americans I met thought. This is another big city in Italy, but not even close to the population of Rome or Milan.

Fun fact: the flag of Bologna is the same as the flag of England. I doubt the two regions have ever really met so it hasn’t caused many problems just yet.

My stays in the cities, as you can tell, were very short. I mean I am just passing through on a train. I hope one day to properly return to these cities and give them the exploration they deserve.

Between Bologna and my next destination, we need to pass through the Apennine mountain range. This mountain range stretches along the spine of Italy from nearly as far north as Turin all the way down to Cosenza in the south. It’s a very long mountain range, and a very tall moutain range. So for about an hour my train was plunged into total darkness.

I’m on a highspeed train. So everytime the train passes into a tunnel, the whole pressure gets thrown off and my ears feel weird. This happened upwards of 30 times with us very breifly getting exposed to the Italian mountains and then plunged back into darkness and deafness. All in the name of travel though!

Eventually, we were free from the mountains, and gazing over the fields of Tuscany. We then arrived at our next stop…

Firenze

Known internationally as Florence!

This is a city I desperately want to come back to and properly explore. It is known culturally to be the literal birthplace of the renaissance, you know that old thing. There are so many iconic pieces of artwork here, from Michelangelo’s David, to ‘The Birth of Venus’. It’s simply a trip I have to make properly.

Alas, for now I must sit in the train station. I bid farewell to the kind old man, and watched as the city disappeared back into fields.

Firenze was my last stop before my last. For the next two hours it would be nothing but the Italian countryside for me to enjoy. Well that and my book, the murder has just occured!

There were some interesting sights on the remainder of my journey though which I felt needed a highlight!

What I saw on the way to Rome

I mean mostly fields. Vineyards as well those were cool!

A highlight for me though, were all of the Italian towns built on top of the many hills I passed by. The most well known of these is a city called Arezzo!

Arezzo is literally built on top of a hill and you can see it from an incredibly far distance, my train was about 20km away but I think I managed to get a good picture of it!

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Before I knew it, the fields began to give way to streets. The tunnels started becoming more and more frequent. Looking at the buildings we passed, I found it astonishing how well mixed the classic architecture was with the modern trainline. It was clear what city I had now arrived at…

Roma

The capital city of Italy! Five hours of travel had brought me to the next section of my adventures!

I’m planning a whole other post on the sights of Rome so I won’t say much about it here. I’m planning to stay in Rome for the next week whilst I work at the Italian Space Agency, so I’m living a really brilliant life if I do say so myself.

I wonder if this will get me the BBC 2 show I desire? I guess we will see.

For now, it is time to rest!

Buona serata

Cassie 🙂