CRT+RPK=RTW – Italy 17

STOP! SKIP BACK TWO PAGES TO MY ENTRY THAT?S TITLED “A lot has happend…” then read ryan’s post, then continue to this one… three blogs in one day! aren’t you all lucky!

(CRT again) this one might be a little graphic so if you’re woozey or weak hearted you might want to skipdown to the end of the page…

Once, several years ago I was on a train in London that was delayed in the underground while officers looked for the leg of someone would jumped in front of the train I was in. I had all but erased that from my memory until Friday.

About 45 minutes into the ride to Florence the train stopped in a town called Padua. An announcement came over the PA in Italian and the two men in our compartment who spoke itlalian groaned and looked agitated. The two American girls in the compartment with us pointed out a rush a policemen who stopped right outside our window on our right and looked down. The people on the platform to our left were also looking down, some covering their faces and one woman started to cry. We gathered that something or someone was under there. When the medics rushed in Everyone in the compartment went to the window on our right and (I might have been the only one who did not look) and Ryan saw two legs, feet with boots, crossed at the ankle. sticking out from underneath our train car. Just ahead of where we were sitting. A tarin official came through our car and told us that there had been an accident, the train would be delayued two hours and advised that we find a different train to where we were going. We got our bags and lined up to exit the train. Ryan went first to make sure that I would be okay, getting out. Since there was only one way for us to get out of the train and it was almost directly above the man under the train, it was nearly impossible not to see at least some of it. The image of a young man  in a red shirt cut cleanly in two with his hands, defeated above his head is now burned on my brain and sometihng neither Ryan nor I are likely to forget. It will be difficult to think about our trip to Italy without that and we are both trying really hard to put it behind us and refocus ourselves but the past two days have been shaded by what happened. I only hope that it was intentional. It put into perspective a little bit, that waiting 2 hours for a train or getting yelled at in a coffee shop aren’t really such tragedies afterall.

After discovering that the next train to Florence was hours away, we decided to wait for our train to continue. It took about an hour and a half and we were back on our way. In a different car, much further up the train and we tried not to think about it by playing a game of scrabble. Good old Scrabble. Never lets us down. I don’t remember much of the game or the rest of that day, although I know that we missed our stop in Florence and rode the train halfway to Rome before we hopped off and then back on a train to Florence, arriving at 9 or so with no where to stay for the night… wandered through the streets, found a room, that we paid to much for, and went to grab a bite to eat as we hadn’t eaten since Venice around noon. A long day that took us by surprise and left us both feeling exhausted and sad. Couple that with the fact that Italy hadn’t been so kind to us so far and both of us were ready to cry and felt pretty homesick. We went to bed in the Hotel Boston and woke up to Florence. Ready for a new start.

Florence is gorgeous. Our friend Pete says that Its his favorite city in Italy and its easy to see why.- It gorgeous and full of art and food. We’ve just been wandering around as its easy to see everything on foot without getting too lost. And finally this is a city that it’s nice to feel lost in.  We’ve been to the Duomo, a giant church with a huge dome roof built by Brunellesci, the Palazzo of the Medici family, the Uffizi art gallery and eaten several flavors of gelato. Today I had mint chocolate chip and cocolate, the BEST ICE CREAM I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE and I eat a lot of ice cream. I am in the process of fattening up now so that I wont have to eat in Egypt.

SO in conclusion… Italy started out rocky at best, got a little better, got way worse and now is back on the up. We miss home but are still enjoying each other and this experience. We’re off to Rome in the morning and are looking forward and forward to falling in love with Italy.

Love you all! CRT
Posted from Italy:

posted Sunday June 2006

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