Safe Train Travels

For nearly every Insider’s Italy client, central to travel is the train.

Long-distance, high speed service is offered by both Trenitalia and Italo with remarkable trains that crisscross the country and its two major islands, connecting Rome and Milan, for example, in less than three hours, a distance that is 580 kilometres (382 miles.)  When I was a child, Rome-Milan was an overnight trip.

There is train service to 230 cities in Italy, with over 16,000 kilometres (nearly 10,000 miles) of active train lines.

And traveling now is as comfortable at it always was, totally efficient as well as reassuring.  A nonna I met told me that she has never felt as secure travelling with her grandchildren as she does now.  “It is all so impeccably clean !” she marvelled. “When we decide to things right in Italy, we really do them right.”

At the Termini station, a mixture of the police and the Protezione Civile measure every departing passenger’s temperature with a thermoscanner.  If more than 37.5 C (99.5) passengers are denied boarding and strongly encouraged to be tested.

There is no question of not wearing a mask that fully covers nose and mouth.

Arrows throughout the station — all major stations — keep foot traffic on direction only.

The little cart has just come by, offering passengers in all but standard class complimentary snacks and drinks, including Illy coffee.  Staff are gloved and fully masked.  The espresso was excellent.

As in the station, the floor of the train is marked to ensure one-way traffic only, thus avoiding congestion.

In the impeccable bathroom, ample soap, running water and hand sanitizer.

Every passenger receives a bag with face mask, a can of mineral water, a cloth to cover the seat headpiece, a package of hand sanitiser and a recycled paper cup.

Wherever a red cloth is seen, that seat is to be kept free.  Passengers are thus well spaced, with guaranteed social distancing.