The train that wasn’t

Tuesday, February 15
We have an afternoon activity with our school today, a visit to a museum to see a show on emigration. When our language class ends at 12:15, we decide to head home for lunch and then take the train back at 3:00 for the activity, which starts at 3:30. But at 3:05, the loudspeaker announces that our train is cinque minuti in ritardo. We wonder where the person is who is making this announcement, since our station has been closed and locked for quite a few years. Perhaps in the nearby station in Pescia, or maybe in Lucca or Firenze. Five minutes later, the same announcement comes on. It is already 3:10, so it looks like the train will be a total of 15 minutes late. But at 3:15, we get the same announcement. We try to call the school to let Angelo know what is going on, but I can only speak to the segretaria telefonica, an answering machine. I don’t have a cell number for Angelo. Then at 3:25, the announcer says the train has been cancellato, canceled. “Mi dispiace per il disagio,” he says. Sorry for the inconvenience. We could wait another half hour for the next train, but by the time we get to Lucca, our activity will be nearly finished. This is our first real disappointment in more than two weeks, and it is minor in the grand scale of life. We love the fact that in our tiny town, we can catch a train to go all over the country, even all over Europe, but the reality is that not even the usually reliable train service is perfect.

We head home and drown our sorrows in a scrumptious full course dinner that Lucy cooks up, thanks to the extra time she now has. Meno male. Not really so bad.