I and five students (Katie, Kim, Katelyn, Jonathan, and Gillian) arrived at the Milano Centrale train station in plenty of time to catch the 8 p.m. train back to Florence. When I went to the ticket counter to purchase my ticket, I was shocked to be told, “Not tonight, maybe tomorrow.” No explanation, just this brusque statement. When I asked her what she meant, she informed me that the entire Tuscany region was on strike, including trains and buses, and that there was no way to get back to Florence until "maybe tomorrow."
As I told my students about our predicament, I saw a look of panic come over some of their faces. One even began to cry. I knew that I needed to turn this into a positive thing, a learning experience for them. So I said, "Before we do anything, let's all sit down and have a talk." I then led them over to a large staircase that led up to the platform, and we took a seat on the steps, off to the side. I began, "Now, I'm twice as old as all of you, and over the years I've learned a few things. And one of those things is that what's happening to us right now is something that you will always remember. Yes, it's nice when things go perfectly, but those aren't the times that will stick out in your minds years from now. It's times like these, times when everything doesn't go as planned, those unexpected times, that will stay with you. This is the kind of experience that you'll be telling others about years from now. So, we can either be upset about what's going on, or we can make it an adventure. So, what will it be?"
And, suddenly, smiles came over these five faces, and one yelled out, "Let's have an adventure!" And that's exactly what we did. At that moment we decided as a team that we weren’t about to let a little train strike ruin our plans, so we huddled and tried to figure out what to do. We made a call to the AIFS emergency number, and Jed said that he would check things out for us, but there was really nothing he could do as the strike was expected to last 24 hours, which is the common length of these strikes in Italy.
We decided that the best thing we could do was to get as close to Tuscany as we could, and that would be Bologna. So we all bought tickets to Bologna and hoped for the best once we got there. After purchasing out tickets, we had about an hour to kill, so we went into a small supermarket at the station and stocked up on food and drink for the train. By this time we were all laughing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Yes, we had all managed to turn this problem into an adventure! Here we are, about to board our train for Bologna, having a grand time!
The Bologna train was different from others I have been on in Italy; it had separate compartments, each seating six people, just perfect for our group! We found an empty car and settled in for a long train ride. As you can see, nothing was getting us down!
We arrived in Bologna around midnight and quickly discovered two things: a taxi ride back to Florence is terribly expensive (and we had to hire two because there wasn’t a taxi big enough for all six of us), and you really don’t want to be hanging around the Bologna train station after midnight! So we knew we had to break down and hire two taxis. Luckily for us, Gillian was with us; we desperately needed her very good Italian. She was able to negotiate two taxis for the six of us, and she made sure that they would stay together the entire way to Florence. After all, I wanted to ensure that all six of us made it back safely.Our wonderful taxi drivers followed through on their agreement, sticking together for the two-hour ride to back to Florence. There was even a time when we had to go through a toll plaza. Our driver had a fast pass and the other didn’t, so our driver pulled over and waited until the other made it through the line to pay.
When we finally reached Florence, we learned that taxis from other cities are not allowed into the city center; entering will result in a large fine. (There are actually cameras on every road leading into the city center, which photograph every vehicle that enters.) The drivers were going to, therefore, drop us off at the airport, where we would have to hire another taxi or two; but Gillian managed to get them to agree to take us to the train station. (Franco, I hope Gillian got an A in Italian class!)
Unfortunately, our drivers, not being familiar with Florence, couldn’t find the train station, and we ended up circling the entire city until we reached the Arno. Along the way we experienced a part of Florence nightlife that I don’t think any of us knew existed: streetwalkers, and not very attractive ones at that! Finally, our drivers found a place where they could drop us off, as close to the city center as they could possibly get. We all got out, ecstatic to be back in Florence, and paid our hefty fare, at this point realizing that it was worth every penny. Our drivers were incredibly nice and showed great concern for us. Through Gillian they made sure that we knew the streets and that we were close to our apartments. They sincerely wanted to make sure that we made it home safely, and, because of them, we all did. When I finally lay down to go to sleep at 3 a.m., I don’t think my bed had ever felt so good…
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