Italian railways

Many mainline stations look like airports thanks to their long departure halls with high ceilings. I’ve found this to be the case at Torino’s Porta Susa and Porta Nova, and thought this to be especially true when I visited Roma Termini many years ago.

That’s not the case in Milan. Milano Centrale is not just a cathedral to the railways, but several. Honestly, I can’t adequately describe the shear fucking size of this building. It’s almost taking the piss¹.

From my very limited experience, you can find ticket office staff working 7pm on a Sunday – unimaginable in England.

Ticket machines offer instructions in different languages. If you select English (represented by a Union Flag icon), it loudly announces that you should be aware of pickpockets, thus alerting every nearby pickpocket to your presence.

Tracks are often painted white, something I suspect will become a common sight closer to home, given global boiling.

The trains mostly run on time.