Italy had the great fortune never to have enjoyed the attention of a Dr Beeching as did Blighty in the 60s. The Italian railway network is still largely intact and branch lines still exist. Maybe there's only a couple of trains a day, the stations are unstaffed, the ticket machines don't work and the waiting room no longer has old vine cuttings glowing faintly in the hearth but most stations are still extant. I came across this little gem the other day.
Cesare Pavese wrote
La Luna e i Falò (The Moon and the Bonfires) in 1949 just before he topped himself* at the age of 41. This station is near his birthplace so the plaque has a line from the book which, badly translated, reads: "Through the peach orchards I could hear the train arriving and filling the valley...".
*He was a Communist so I can see his point. If he'd have hung on for a while he'd have eventually seen the light, become a Conservative, jetted around the world for Champagne-assisted book launches, had it off with Sophia Loren and got hammered regularly on decent Italian red wine.
3 comments:
Railway renaisence here in blighty with associated contoversy. Oh for the joys of the C19th and the serf-trampling thrust of new lines un-rolling across the countryside faster than the petitions and complaints could be delivered to London.
Great post Ron. Through your good offices I have enjoyed many ferrovia. With the exception of one where I turned up expecting you to meet me, only to find not you but a bemused taxi driver staring at me because I was dressed-up as that bloke in Death in Venice, complete with panama hat and obligatory streak of black hair dye running down my forehead.
Pavese's loss is your gain - in the red wine department that is.
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