22 June 2007

It Happened Again

If you ever decide to come to Italy, you should learn this word: sciopero. It means strike. I've written about it before, regarding the air traffic controllers and then the gas stations.

Well, they've done it again. Starting at 9 pm last night and lasting until 9 tonight (10, depending on what news you read), the trains are on strike.

We were supposed to move on to Lucca today from Siena. But yesterday when we went to the station to look at tickets, we found out about the strike. After frantically trying to get bus reservations, and running straight into the wall that is Italian bureacuracy, we had to change our plans. One extra night here in Siena, the trip to Lucca pushed back a day.

It's a good thing we have flexible plans, otherwise, the Italian train people would be getting one nasty letter.


[We were just checking the national strike website (yes, they have a website devoted solely to strikes) and couldn't find the train strike. Apparently, there are some rumors that the strike didn't happen. Apparently, you can't win with these things.]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Made me laugh out loud.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, another strike! Good thing Siena is beautiful.

Sissy

Anonymous said...

I guess you have learned to take deep breaths and go with the flow and as the saying goes ... while in rome do as the romans do....!

adn

kari said...

I learned the same thing about France: greve. When all the truckers went on strike by gathering at busy intersections for morning coffee. For ten hours.

Americans are such amateurs when it comes to a strike. Chanting with posters? Bah.

Hee. Glad to see you got to Lucca after all!