08/19/2024
**A story from my recent trip to Italy... My Italian Train Strike! **
“Cancellato.”
Thus read the screen next to my 5pm train listing.
I was heading back to Santa Marguerita Ligure, where my luggage and comfy bed awaited about an hour away. Despite my lack of Italian, “Cancellato” wasn’t hard to translate.
“Canceled.”
My body froze as I struggled to make sense of the situation. My stomach dropped as I realized I had made a big mistake in taking the train to Levanto earlier that afternoon.
When I had arrived that morning to buy my ticket, the windows were closed, with a paper sign that read, “Scopero,” (“Strike”).
Yet trains had been running all morning, and riders were coming and going calmly. The automated ticket machines were working fine.
“Well,” I thought to myself. “Everything seems to be running smoothly.”
And so, I bought the ticket.
Looking back now several hours later, I wondered. “Surely they wouldn’t sell me a round trip ticket if they knew I couldn’t get back?”
“Surely they won’t let a foreigner, who doesn’t speak Italian, and has been in the country for less than 48 hours, get on the train south with no car, no taxi number, no family or friends in the country, a barely working phone, and no way to get back to my little home base with my suitcases and rented sheets and towels for the night?”
“They wouldn’t do that… would they?”
But clearly, they had.
** Read more on my blog...
I had been in Italy barely 48 hours when I became stranded in an Italian train strike, unable to get back to my rented room. I needed to draw on all my yogic powers of breath, mindset, and presence to stay grounded and calm through this experience. Ultimately, I made it home, learning much about hum...
