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eastwestdivide's Italian escape (via the Black Forest)


eastwestdivide

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Well summer's approaching, so before it got too hot, I set off on my travels, by train to Italy in late May.

 

Things started with one of only two diesel trains I caught the entire holiday:

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... from home in S Yorks to get to Kent, where I stopped off within easy reach of this:

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... to stay with family, and eventually catch the Ebbsfleet flyer, via an SNCF-sponsored football table:

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...to Paris. I had one of the new Eurostar trains (as pictured on the Medway viaduct above), pretty good, certainly less tired than the original sets.

 

Lucky escape no.1, there was a partial French rail strike, but it didn't affect my TGV onwards.

A short walk across to Paris Est found the Strasbourg service, just across from the Orient Express, a different level of catering entirely compared to my goat cheese baguette:

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The high speed line was just that, but the extension doesn't open for a month or so, which meant a scenic hour or so at the end of the current secton on the run into Strasbourg.

There, a quick connection to the 2nd diesel of the holiday, across the Rhine to Offenburg. This was a pair of single unit diesel cars, despite the line being electrified throughout. They're German-run (Ortenau S-Bahn, or SWEG), and banished from the main platforms at Strasbourg to a little platform off the end of the main station:

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Change at Offenburg for an RE service, a fairly standard Class 146 and DD coaches, south to Freiburg, my stopping-off point for the next few days (yes, I know I said Italy):

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More on Freiburg and the Black forest in the next instalment.

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Freiburg - it's a nice place, with a tall Münster church, a pleasant pedestrianised centre (with trams), and these little runnels (Bächle) that carry flowing water. Kids in wellies splash in them, other kids tow model boats as they walk along, while these were on offer for discerning tourists:

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Note the first two in Black Forest costume. It was very tempting to stock up on a few for strategic placement on a statue at Kings Cross, but I was travelling light.

 

There's a funicular, which I didn't use:

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and a cable car to the Schauinsland mountain, which I did. The hotel gives you a travel ticket to cover your stay, which includes trams, buses and local trains, as far out as Titisee, but not the cable car itself, which is a tram+bus ride out from the centre. Portillo did it in one of his Euro travel programmes (which I later discovered on Italian TV, dubbed, and now called Trans Europe Express).

Back on track, here's the cable car, with views across the city:

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From the top you can see the Vosges in France and on a clear day, the Jungfrau in Switzerland.

 

The following day, I used my free ticket on the Höllentalbahn (Hell's Valley Line), via a pretty spectacular gorge, to the Black Forest lakeside town of Titisee (stop tittering at the back there).
The usual sort of local DD push-pull trains, pretty full with day-trippers. Three views at Titisee, including the signalbox:

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I reckon those driving cars are ugly as sin.

 

There was engineering work and a bus on the branch line to Seebrugg, with an engineering train in the platform at Titisee, including a road-railer coupled to normal wagons:

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Apple strudel and a walk round the lake found this sort of view:

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And no matter how many years since O-level German, there's something very satisfying about pictures with the word "Fahrt" in them, particularly combined with a place name just made for Benny Hill:

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A bonus there was the permanent model exhibition and layouts at Märklin World:

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My wallet stayed shut, however.

 

And back to Freiburg, noticing a station, Himmelreich (Kingdom of Heaven) on the Höllentalbahn, which makes for a pleasingly balanced sign (sorry, dodgy phone shot through grubby glass):

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Back at Freiburg, I peered over from the tram bridge, to see this colourful SNCF single-car unit coming in, from Mulhouse I think. Yes, there's a guy up on the bridge. He was lying down sunbathing just before that.

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Italy in the next instalment. Stay tuned, but maybe not tonight.

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While I'm waiting for the really interesting Italian bit, I'll fess to my O level Deutsch story:

 

In 1970, my three young children went swimming in the Moselle from our VW Dormobile. Suddenly a huge Musicaldampffahrt swept around the bend, charging along, and uttered a couple of blasts on the horn at the three heads.  To our horror everything disappeared in a blur of spray and deafening bouncy German danceband beat. 

Huge relief as it vanished around the next bend - in the uncanny silence, three bobbing heads were once again visible to chastened parents !

 

dh

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This is very sad, however I have to admit to once building the Stage Set(s) for an am dram performance of The White Horse Inn. One scene involved an arrival of passengers at a Station followed by an embarkation onto a ferry. To facilitate the scene change, myself and another member of the Stage Crew, dressed in Sailor Uniforms, stood behind the 'Station bits' and held them in place. Then the scene change where the 'Station' bits were collected by others and lo, there were two jolly 'tars' at a Jetty, waiting to collect tickets from the transferring passengers.  Having been encouraged by the leading man before the performance started, we then adopted so called Germanic/Swiss accents and asked very loudly for something like Fharkarte bitte with huge emphasis on the Fhar and an additional 't' thus fartcart bitte. 

Such fun...........................................(not).

There we go, that's lowered the tone of this thread....sorry EWD.

Phil

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...

There we go, that's lowered the tone of this thread....sorry EWD.

Phil

 

Not at all, there are more Fa(h)rt photos to come. 

Our German teacher, normally very strict, took the view that letting us laugh, snigger and giggle all the way through one lesson was worth it to get it out of our systems and have straight faces the next 100 times a "journey" or a "father" came up. He was sadly mistaken.

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Carrying on, as instructed...

 

A morning departure from Freiburg on the Interlaken ICE (right) as far as Bern, running on GIST (German Intercity Standard Time, i.e. about 5-10 mins late). Stopping RE service (left) about to follow down to Basel:

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We made up time due to long scheduled stops at both Basel stations. At Bern, a cross-platform change to a double-deck IC service to Brig via the base tunnel, passing one of these dinky shunters near Visp. A viaduct on the older Lötschberg route is visible above:

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And change at Brig for an ice cream and a pic of an MGB train beside a nice rack in the station forecourt:

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Then onto the Milan express, which arrived early, giving time for the Italian border police to check passports etc before departure, and a run through the Simplon tunnel to Domodossola. This photo is the right kind of train, but heading north, with a lorry shuttle over on the other side:

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What happens if you arrive half an hour early for an Italian appointment? The B&B guy turns up on the stroke of 6 minutes late, on a scooter of course:

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Late afternoon, pleasant weather, so I took a walk up the "Stations of the Cross" route to a basilica high on a hill.

Of course I was more interested in a different kind of station, here with a triple-headed "Crossrail" freight passing:

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Domodossola (pronounced with the stress on the DOSS) is in a brilliant setting, surrounded by mountains on most sides. It also has a very nice old town (centro storico), with pavement restaurants etc. I had expected some kind of nondescript border town, but it's the centre for quite a wide area.

 

The following day was a trip on the Centovalli line, which will be the subject of a separate post. However, as I returned to Domodossola late afternoon that day, I had time to head out to the viaduct over the Torrente Bogna, just to the north end of town, the Crevoladossola end. So I'll add those photos here.

A lot of vegetation more or less obstructing views of the viaduct, but still a fair variety of train shots available. The section of line north of Domodossola is operated by SBB, although on Italian territory. There's a voltage change in the station, and an independent SBB voltage line running south to some marshalling yards.

 

The SBB Brig-Domodossola shuttle, a push-pull arrangement with older coaches:

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Trainload of cereals:

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Crossrail again:

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Looking over the fence at classic SBB freight locos on an intermodal:

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And the view south from the station, a local service to Milan, with typical Italian regional coaches, push-pull with a single-ender loco:

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Stay tuned, more probably tomorrow, including the promised rude signs.

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Thank you for some excellent holiday inducing pics. DomoDOSSola looking up into the mountains under the station sign brought a lump to my throat.

 

Even my wife (!) puts up with bumbling around on Italian branchlines - PROVIDED we are not on a train at a mealtime and we always change trains where there is a Ristorante on or facing the stazione. That is still to e relied on in a wonderfully inefficient southern European country yet to experience a drastic Beeching 'austerity' axe.

 

May/June is absolutely the best time - the cuckoos are are a constant audio backdrop in the Appenines.

 

dh

 

PS

I really did well careerwise thanks to the EU - running international Masters courses on 'Managing Small Historic Cities' in Umbria - pity we will be out in a couple of weeks time  :O

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So, the Centovalli line between Domodossola (Italy) and Locarno (Switzerland). The name means 100 valleys, and the terrain is pretty mountainous. It's run jointly by Società Subalpina di Imprese Ferroviarie in Italy and Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi in Switzerland (note the initials).

 

It also has to be a candidate for the line with the least inspiring termini in relation to the intermediate scenery. Both ends are concrete bunkers underneath their respective main line stations. Locarno being at the end of a couple of kms of tunnel section.

Here, we see the main types of train on the line. First the older type with opening windows, which I caught on the 0825 from Domodossola. Three coaches, two doors:

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Then a more modern type, branded Centovalli Express, which I caught back from Locarno:

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And a panoramic/observation car set, on which you pay a supplement:

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It was a bit rainy setting out, but I'd packed an umbrella and waterproofs, and given how mountain weather can change from one valley to the next, I was optimistic about hopping off on the way back for some scenic photos. A bit like this, but sunny:

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Despite being a tiny 3-car train, they loaded a snack trolley, mandhandling it up three steps onto the train. I ordered a caffè latte, which was delivered as a large thimble of something that came out of Vesuvius, plus a plastic pack nearly as big as the thimble with "Kaffeesahne" on it. The trolley was manhandled off again at Re, one of the many request stops, where the procedure on the platform is to take a metal flag affair and plant it into a hole in the platform:

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The weather didn't improve, in fact by tropical Locarno...

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... it was positively horrible. So a cup of tea in the station buffet, and a few photos later...

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...I was back on the train, still hopeful of a break in the weather.

However, it didn't improve, so I can only ask that you use Photoshop skills and/or imagination to place me on the bridge down below in this picture, with the sun out:

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A bit like this maybe

 

In fact, it was probably a lucky escape that it looked so horrible, as if I had got out somewhere, I'd have been stuck in a combined thunder and hail storm.

 

Despite the poor weather, it was a spectacular run through the mountains, about 2 hours each way, but seemed to pass more quickly. If anyone's going, the views are better on the north side of the line out of Domodossola to Coimo and Gagnone, and then on the south side of the line once you're east of Ribellasca into Switzerland.

 

I was back in Domodossola by 1400, and after a bit of a siesta (perhaps putting the "doss" into Domodossola), this happened:

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which prompted me to go out for the viaduct photos from the previous post. Silver lining etc.

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Away from the mountains to the seaside now. Caught the SBB Basel-Milan service through to Milano Centrale, a good run beside the lake and then through the suburbs, same type of tilting unit as pictured a couple of posts back. Again Italian border police checking some passports on the train during the extended stop at Domodossola. One of a group of three Italian women nearby could have won an award for talking in the face of adversity: she had a heavy cold, but stopped talking during the journey only to sneeze or blow her nose violently, or to text, or when one of her friends managed to squeeze in a "sì, sì....no" occasionally. I suddenly remembered a word from my Italian course, chiacchierare, pronounced kyakkyerare.

 

Peace and quite returned at the busy Milano Centrale. With an hour to spare, I can recommend for pure entertainment value going up to a coffee stand and asking if they have any tea. I got such a dirty look from the guy behind the counter. The main station building is a bit over the top for architecture:

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A well as the (monu)mental entrance hall, there's a spacious train shed, which contained this Italo (open-access operator) high-speed service:

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...and my InterCity to La Spezia, which I'd be on as far as Rapallo, south of Genova/Genoa on the Ligurian coast. First class, comfy open coach, with a Krypton Factor approach to seat numbering - I was in seat 76, so I found the bay of seats starting with 71... 72, 73, 74, 75, 46. A wander down to row 4 found another 46, so I assumed 46 was 76 - no-one came with a reservation for 46 to argue about it:

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You can see the Alps from the train for a long way south of Milan:
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Then you go through hilly country, tunnels and valleys, to the coast at Genova, after which the line becomes rather like an extended Dawlish-Teignmouth, but with better ice cream:

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Arrival in Rapallo was more or less on time. I found my very friendly and heplful B&B, discussed cycling with the chap (Nibali was about to win the Giro d'Italia - how excited were the commentators on Italian TV?), and nipped out for some pics.

The following are from Rapallo that day and the next few days.

 

View across to the harbour with a passing IC:
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Seaside and Frecciabianca express:

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The station with an IC, class 444 loco:

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Typical local (Regionale) train with 1/3 + 2/3 doors, low floor section in the middle, always push-pull with a single-ender loco (class 464) at one end:

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And there were also a few of these modern DD "VivAlto" (high life) sets, same arrangement with the single-ender locos, but these coaches had decent aircon and useful information screens:

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On the journey down to Rapallo, there were announcements about a rail strike the following day, duration less than 24h. Lucky escape no.3, as I wasn't planning to catch any trains that day, but instead took the boat across to Portofino, all posh yachts, restaurants and whatever the Italian word is for grockles, but with decent, if steep, hill walks signposted out of the village:

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I can recommend for pure entertainment value going up to a coffee stand and asking if they have any tea. I got such a dirty look from the guy behind the counter. The main station building is a bit over the top for architecture:

 

 

Hi

 

Having just returned from a holiday in Northern Italy using only rail I can say I didn't have any problems or dirty looks getting a cup of tea anywhere in Switzerland (I wanted to travel over the Gotthard pass before the new tunnel opens) or Italy.

 

No pictures of any trains though I'm afraid.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

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Yes, Switzerland and Germany, no problems for tea for me either. My Italian B&Bs stocked teabags just fine, and I even found a couple of places calling themselves tea rooms in Turin.

But a Milan station chrome and glitz coffee bar with an immaculately-dressed chap in a waistcoat behind the counter is another kettle of... err... something.

 

While I'm here, I'll add a few observations on tickets for trains in Italy.

All FS long-distance high speed services (Frecciabianca, Frecciarosso, Frecciargento, Intercity etc), plus the Swiss SBB Milan services within Italy, and the italo open-access services are reservation-only, but with pretty cheap prices available in advance, and not ridiculously expensive even at the last minute.

The rest, Regonale Veloce and Regionale, are non-reservable, and also pretty cheap, but you do have to remember to validate (convalidare) your ticket in the machine on the platform, like the composter system in France. I saw a guard literally rip some foreign tourists' regional tickets to shreds because they hadn't understood this rule. 

There are multilingual ticket machines available, a bit slow, but preferable to the enormous queues that I saw nearly everywhere at the ticket windows at stations. Travelling south from Rapallo, I arrived at the station a good 40 mins before my Intercity, but after 10-15 mins in the queue, discovered that I couldn't get a ticket for it as it was already fully booked (reservation-only). However, I was saved by a Regionale Veloce running about 10+ mins late, which made it to my next changing point ahead of the Intercity, and in fact formed my connection onwards. 

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The next episode - south down the coast from Rapallo to the coastal walking trails of the Cinque Terre.

 

Departing Rapallo on a Regionale Veloce, loco at the rear, out of sight...

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... I changed at Sestri Levante (off the terminating train and back onto the same set that formed the train forward), and changed again at Levanto, onto the "Cinque Terre Express", which is in fact an all-stations stopper through the five picturesque coastal villages that make up the Cinque Terre national park and World Heritage Site.

I got off at Monterosso. Here, a local service, heading north:

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The Monterosso station toilets were... interesting, for somewhere with so many tourists:

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The station is nearly on the beach, flanked by tunnels each end:

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You have to buy a ticket to use the walking trails, from a little hut a short way up out of town. There's also a combined multi-day train and trail ticket for the devoted walker.

A little way out, in a steeply terraced vineyard, there was some kind of rack and pinion monorail affair:

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And further on, some of these fine beasts:

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It's spectacularly steep. At one point, I sat down for an eat and drink, and all you could hear was the voices of many nations huffing and puffing uphill. That was late May, and it was quite busy in places - some sections were only one direction at a time - so it must be slow going in high summer.

After a while, you catch sight of the next village, Vernazza:

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...which is also served by train. The other line of the double track is in a tunnel at this point:

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View from Vernazza harbour, ice cream in the other hand:

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And back to the station, which is a crowded island platform extending into two single-track tunnels. With neither a warning over the PA system nor a sound from the horn, this Frecciabianca express shot through, at maybe 50mph. With the single-line tunnel, there was more wind than the London Underground, and people had to hold on to their hats:

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A couple more regional trains back up the coast, with views alternating between beach and tunnel, and I was back in Rapallo for dinner.

I did see freight trains along the Ligurian coast section, both this day and earlier, but didn't manage to photograph any.

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We stayed around that way a few years ago, staying at Santa Margherita Ligure; there is one walking trail that follows the original route of the railway, which we walked. We took a boat along the coast, which may be the easiest way to train-spot.

Yes, there are boats from Rapallo down to the Cinque Terre, as well as more boat trips confined to the Cinque Terre area. Considered it, but a fair bit more expensive than the train, and you're tied to the boat schedule, and I'm not a great sailor either, particularly when combined with ice cream (from experience on the Flamborough Head/Bempton Cliffs RSPB boat!).

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Not so many trains in this post, but still some interesting transport.

I left Rapallo on a Frecciabianca train via Genova to Turin, arriving at Porta Nuova station, where they're in the process of "doing a St Pancras", moving the buffers out from the historic trainshed area, and turning it into a shopping centre. Will be good when it's finished, but even the frontage is covered in scaffolding, albeit with an overprint of the architecture on it:

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Turin is full of broad arcaded avenues and wide squares, elegant buildings, and when I arrived, also full of vans selling pink clothing (the colour of the leader's jersey in the GIro d'Italia cycling). Here are some cycing crowds, in front of a church which some might recognise from the film "The Italian Job":

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Same church in the background here. Note the position of the wheels on the Panda, having an argument with the tram:

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After buying my tourist ticket for the museums and transport, first destination in the morning was the Sassi-Superga historic rack and pinion tramway:

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You can also eat next to a horse tram:

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However, a monosyllabic ticket seller told me "bus", and then I found the notice for the historic rack and pinion tramway replacement bus service:

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"frana" = landslip. It would have been nice if the tourist office who sold me the historic transport ticket* had said it wasn't working, as it's a 20-25 minute tram ride out from the city centre.

*covering this, the no7 historic tram, the lift up the Mole Antonelliana and a boat ride.

 

Next bus in 50 minutes, and with the view from below of the Superga basilica at the top looking like this...

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...I decided there wasn't much point, so caught the slightly-less historic tram back into town:

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The first time it stopped, I was transported back to the 1980s and the Southern Region by the sound of the compressor.

 

Discovered the route and timetable of the No.7 historic tram, and after seeing it disappear into the distance *twice*, one museum later, and a quick snack in the newer Porta Susa station, where most of the high speed services call, over in a dark hole on the right...

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...  I picked it up for a ride:

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Not that different inside to the older ones still in service:

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No spitting:

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The following day, I had a trip out on the automated metro. The platform-edge doors meant the only decent photo I got was out of the front window. There were signals that turned red once the train had stopped, and green again once the doors had closed, I guess to indicate that it can't move with the doors unlocked, if it's in manual or semi-automatic operation.

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to the former Fiat factory at Lingotto, now shops and art gallery (with the test track on the factory roof):

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and the very good car museum nearby.

 

I can really recommend Turin for a couple of days of city break. Loads of museums, plenty of shopping, wide choice of food, views of the Alps on a clear day (which I didn't get), and some quirky transport.

 

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All that remains is my journey back. The Milan-Paris TGV from Turin Porta Susa:

post-6971-0-97645600-1465494373.jpg

The red screens show you which coach stops where.

 

A prolonged stop on the French side of the border at Modane, and I noticed something strangely familiar between two grain wagons. Excuse the quality, older mobile phone camera, loads of reflections and miles away:

post-6971-0-60578800-1465494372.jpg

Class 66, 66211. They get everywhere - there was another in the Paris suburbs.

 

I'd booked first class for the 6-hour journey, in which you get this:

post-6971-0-26691900-1465494376.jpg

 

and can pay for this:

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while watching this:

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The TGV from Milan was a single-decker, but en route it joined on to the double-decker you can see above.

 

The story from Paris onwards could turn into a bit of a rant, so here's the short version: UK bank holiday crowds going home, souvenir hunter with WW2 ammunition, security chaos, Gare du Nord inadequate even at normal times, 3 hours late back at Ebbsfleet:

post-6971-0-60903700-1465494371.jpg

 

However, lucky escape (no.4 I think): I was on the third-last Eurostar due out of Paris that night, but the other two got cancelled as the line was closed overnight for engineering. I've just had my refund from Eurostar today, so, silver lining again.

 

That's about it - arrivederci till next time, and thanks for the comments.

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Thanks for sharing that holiday with us. I got to love that top left corner of Italy through heading up student Erasmus trips to Turin and to Val d'Aosta (which - previously part of France Savoie - is a Autonomous Region. They get to keep all the State taxes raised there and find it a bit difficult to spend it all, so all the hill farmers seem to run expensive Benz limos on easy Regional car loans!)

The Turin Polytechnic was right by the Lingotto 'futurismo' factory - did you know the Fiat boss Agnelli originally wanted  'the Italian Job' filmed with Fiat 500 Cinqucentos?

 

Next time I recommend flying to Nice and going by trainto Liguria,  staying a few days in Genoa - it is a wonderful hilly city. And with great food - the home of 'pesto' for sea voyagers like Columbus.

dh

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Thank you for posting these pictures - such a pity that you didn't have better weather, though.

 

As to your visit to the rack railway and, as you say, ' It would have been nice if the tourist office who sold me the historic transport ticket had said it wasn't working', I have a feeling that the Italian(s) concerned are somewhat like the French (OK, I am generalising a bit) in that if you ask the right question, you will get the right answer and more…but if you don't, or don't know which questions to ask, information is unlikely to be offered. 

 

I have got into the habit, after many years here, of ending almost every such conversation by asking 'is there anything else I need to know about [whatever the subject might be]?' !

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olivegreen - you might be generalising a bit about the information thing. The guy in the Turin tourist office was pretty helpful, offering information that I didn't ask for, and it's possible he didn't know or the rack people hadn't told them. Elsewhere in Italy, B&B owners and hotel people were all too keen to point out the attractions in their areas, giving me maps, info and tips on where not to eat. Was that because I was speaking their language? Maybe.

In fact the weather was mostly just right, sunny without being oppressively hot - the only iffy days were the day on the Centovalli, and a bit of haze/cloud in Turin, plus rain when I was inside the museums.

 

One other footnote, on my return from Kent to Yorkshire a couple of days later, I took advantage of Virgin's London/Doncaster "Power of an Hour" promotion to catch an earlier train than the one on my advance ticket. Lucky escape no.5: if I'd come back the following day, the overhead wires were down.

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olivegreen - you might be generalising a bit about the information thing. The guy in the Turin tourist office was pretty helpful, offering information that I didn't ask for, and it's possible he didn't know or the rack people hadn't told them. Elsewhere in Italy, B&B owners and hotel people were all to keen to point out the attractions in their areas, giving me maps, info and tips on where not to eat. Was that because I was speaking their language? Maybe.

 

 

I don't think it has much to do with speaking their language.  My experiences in Italy are relatively limited but on my 'grand tour' I stopped in a small hotel in Tirano where only one member of staff spoke English  (the majority of guests were police officers on a course) and everyone was very helpful - even on the night I arrived back after they'd stopped serving meals when something delicious was 'knocked together' for me.  Equally folk with a bit of sign language and sometimes a bit of French or English were helpful everywhere.

 

I think a lot of it comes from treat as you would be treated and helpfulness brings forth helpfulness.

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