Trains.
Have you ever been on a train?
It might seem like a stupid question, but if you live in the USA and you've never travelled to Europe, you probably have never really travelled long distance by train. I mean there are the undergrounds in the big cities and sometimes even some over ground small trains, but nothing that is longer than 30 minutes.
In Europe instead we have a huge reilway system that can take you almost everywhere. People use trains daily, because it's cheper than a car and on the train you can sleep, study, read or whatever, all things that you can't do while you're driving. And when somebody goes to college in a nearby town, he or she might decides to do "il/la pendolare", which means he/she will still live at home and will take the train everyday to go to the lectures. Some people have to become "pendolare" when they are even younger, for example if you live in a small town or village that doesn't have high schools (or sometimes even middle schools) you need to take the train or the public busses to go to school everyday.
But I was never among them. I grew up in a pretty big city, close to the town center so I could go everywhere biking or walking. I think I took the train a few times to go to my aunt's house in Bologna or when we went to Paris and took the night train. But other than that, not many trains in my life. You can easily understand now how taking a train became a special event, something to be excited for. I loved them. Their sound, that helps you to sleep. Their gentle moving that let you read without making you sick. I prepared days in advance for that event: I decided what to wear, what to bring inside my backpack, which backpack to bring. One time I remember missing a train to go home from Bologna. I was about ten and I was with my cousin (who is about my age) and my aunt. It was snowing and it was pretty cold and the taxi was late so we got to the train station just in time to see the train leave. That was pretty heart breaking for the younger me. (We took the next train and nothing really happened, but still I will never forget that "wilde" experience).
And then what happened? I went to college. In Venice. Two hours and an half by car and three hours by train (switching train in the middle) away from home. Of course I can't be a "pendolare" it's too far away and to tiring, so I'm staying in a small apartment in Venice, as you know. But still I'll go back home every week or every other week and this means only one thing: trains.
Taking a train, printing a ticket for the train, finding a way to fit everything in small backpacks I can easily take on the train, this is my new normal. And I still love trains. I love the way they make me feel. Like a traveller, an explorer always leaving something behind for something new ahead of you.
Taking a train, it's a lot like starting college. You leave your family and all your friends behind, on the platform waiving goodbye with (maybe) tears in their eyes. You leave them behind to jup on a train that will take you somewhere, but you don't really know how the journey will be. You jump anyway. You try not to cry because the people you left behind can't see you. You are alone, indepent, all grown up. And this is exciting and terrifying at the same time. You love deciding alone what to do and what not to do, but sometimes you miss the comforts of being at home. And this is all fine.
As the train tells you while it's leaving the platform. It's normal. It knows it, because it saw many people before you in the same situation. Everything will be fine. Everyting will be fine. It keeps repeting it in a endless nenia while the engines are working. And you end up beliving it. I'll be fine. I can do this. Everything will be fine. And a small weird smile appears on your face. Everything will truly be fine. Oh men, how I love trains!
That's all for now,
love you lots,
see you soon,
Fennec Fox
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