Trying To Outsmart a Train

Our first full day in Florence was breezy and warm, humidity gathering already by 08:00 when we headed out in search of the train depot and an adventure into the countryside. Today we would use the regular jump-on-and-off, no pre-arranged seats or espresso Eurail pass and find our way to Lucca and Pisa and (hopefully) back again, all in one day. We were empowered! and ready to go!

We admit it was ambitious, but we were fearless. That, and we really REALLY wanted to see both places. And so armed with our Eurail timetable booklet and the coveted Eurail pass, we arrived at the station but couldn't really figure out the exact train to take to get to Lucca. There didn't seem to be a direct train, and we thought Lucca would be best first because there was so much to see, and Pisa would be a quick on and off stop for photos and maybe a souvenier or two.

What's that? The train to Lucca wasn't leaving until 10:45? That can't be right, it would waste half the morning! So we did what any other inexperienced travel team would do: we asked someone else, and then someone else again, until we were pointed to a train departing in 3 minutes heading to Pistoia which was kind of on the way to Lucca, and reassurred there would be a train there to take us the rest of the way.

And off we went to Pistoia, a sleepy little Italian town in the middle of nowhere with a deserted little train platform and just two rails (east/west?)  and absolutely no trains in sight, which was sad for your heroes who saw the occasional train come and go but none of them to Lucca. So after a while of waiting for our train that wouldn't come, we trekked across the street to a little coffee place.

We studied the timetable a little more there and had something to eat, my first and only Diet Coke of the trip (called a Coke Light) for a whopping 2.80 euro and a (fortunately) tasty sandwich that I pointed to in the case which turned out to be tuna. Randy ended up with some unappetizing variant of olive loaf.

Refreshed and ready to put our heads into understanding the Italian railway chart on the wall, we trekked back and finally located a man speaking marginal English who directed us to the one and only train to Lucca on Track 1, and it would arrive at 13:15. Wait a sec! That's the same train we didn't think we had time to wait for in Florence...

Happily, it did eventually arrive, and on time, which we appreciated this time around and it took us into a beautiful afternoon in Lucca with loads to explore before easily catching a connection to Pisa to take all those goofy touristy photos while you laugh along with everyone else holding up the tower. The locals must hate that.

And as we headed home, tired and satisfied and with the sun setting on a wonderful day, we gazed out at Pisa's enormous train station with its 8 or 10 rails going every whichway all through the day, and realized that reading a timetable is just as much about interpreting it, and even if you want to try, you can never outsmart a train.