I had decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to the station, rather than pay the outrageous fare for the water bus. Once I got to the station, I had about half an hour before departure. For those that aren't aware, a fair amount of toilets in Europe charge an entry fee - the ones at the station in Venice charge an outrageous €1. The one on the train was free.
Once the train arrived, everyone piled in. I had reserved a seat, which apparently everyone on the train had done. Santa Lucia was literally where all the tourists got on, while all the locals got on at Mestre and Padua. All the American tourists rudely crammed their luggage in the overhead storage, leaving no-one with any room to put small bags. Bloody Yanks! The seats were about on par with the ICE ones, with a small fold-out table in between and minimal legroom:
A seat on a high-speed Italian train
Once the train filled up in Padua, everyone was crammed in quite tightly. The train was basically full until we reached Florence, where almost every tourist piled out of the train again, leaving it quite empty. We got to stretch out and enjoy the Italian countryside as it rocketed past at 250km/h:
The southern Italian countryside
Apparently the names of the three high-speed trains in Italy are based on their speeds: Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) is the fastest at 300km/h, Frecciargento is in the middle at 250km/h and Frecciabianca is the slowest at 220km/h. We wound up in Rome about 5 minutes late, having mostly made up a 15 minute delay in Florence:
Frecciargento leaving Rome Tiburtina
I spent the rest of the day chilling in the apartment in Rome. I'll have a detailed report from Rome tomorrow. Bye all!
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