A nice thing about cruising is that you don’t have to think about anything. Someone else takes care of just about everything for you. But this morning we disembarked. Now we’re back on our own, standing on the dock in Venice, luggage in hand. We need to find our way to the train station – Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia.
Our big Italian cruise ship pulled into Venice early this morning. Venice was the final destination of our Greek Isles cruise, so here we are.
Time to Start Thinking Again
Today’s mission is to take the train from Venice to Florence. As far as I can tell, unless you’re in a big hurry, the preferred mode of transport from the dock to Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia is on foot.
The train station isn’t far from the dock, but my track record for finding my way around Venice is far from exemplary. In fact, based on past performance, odds are we’ll get lost at least once on the way.
Fortunately for me, we proved the odds-makers wrong this time and made it to Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia without much trouble.
I had already made reservations on-line. At least I think I did. I know I did something on the Italiarail website, and that something got charged to my credit card, but that’s all I’m sure of.
Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia
We had our reservations, but we still had to get the actual tickets. If you know what you’re doing, you can do this at a self-service ticket machine. But if you’re me, you’d better go to the biglietteria, (ticket office), and talk to a real person. (Bonus: it’s a good chance to practice speaking italiano with a captive audience).
Venice’s train station isn’t large, so it was easy to find the biglietteria. Most, but not all ticket agents in a station this size will speak some english. That’s not the case in smaller towns, so knowing a few train-related Italian words can come in handy. (See end of post). OK – Here we go…
Impiegato — “Buon giorno.” (Good day).
Mio — “Buon giorno. Ho un prenotazione – due posti nel prossimo treno che parti per Firenze. (Hello. I have a reservation – two seats on the next train departing for Florence).
Impiegato — “OK… documenti?” (OK… Papers?)
(The “OK” tells me he knows I’m not a native italian speaker, but also that he’s going to work with me).
Mio — “Ecco i miei documenti.” (Here are my papers….)
Impiegato — “Hmmm… due biglietti… da Venezia a Firenze… di sola andata?”
(Two tickets… from Venice to Florence… one-way?)
Mio — “Sì. Sola andata giusto.” (Yes. Just one-way.)
Impiegato — “Tutti sono in ordini. Binario numero quindici. Partenza alla dieci trentacinque.” (Everything is in order. Track Number 15. Departure at 10:35.)
Mio — “Gracie.” (Thank you.)
Impiegato — “Prego. Buon viaggio.” (You’re welcome. Have a nice trip.)
Train tracks are called “binario.” All you have to do is find your binario, just like finding a gate at the airport. If the train is already there waiting, you can climb aboard. If not, you’d better keep an eye on the departure board.
Split-Flap Boards
Some stations still have the old-style split-flap boards. Departure information is on flaps that whirr around like little Rolodexes. When departure information is updated, flaps start whirring around with a “tacka-tacka-tacka” sound. It sounds like a flock of mechanical birds whooshing through the station.
When people hear that sound, they look up at the board to see which track their train will be on. Or maybe, if they’re tourists, they look up to see if there’s a flock of mechanical birds whooshing through the station.
Remigio Solari invented the split-flap board in 1948. Most have been replaced with all-electric versions, but even then, sometimes the “tacka-tacka-tacka” sound is artificially produced, just because people like it.
Can you image what it must have been like in Signor Solari’s house in the late 40’s?…
Tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka…
Mamma Solari — “Remigio! Basta con il sua rumore! È trè della mattina!” (Remigio! Enough with the noise already! It’s 3:00 in the morning!)
Tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka…
To be continued…
Good words to know…
Biglietto, (pronounced “beel-yet-toh”) – ticket
Biglietteria – ticket office
Impiegato – agent
Prenotazione – reservation
Biglietto di sola andata – one-way ticket
Binario – train track
