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You can say what you like about Mussolini, but you cannot fault the Italian rail system. The tickets are cheap - you get a free biscuit on the journey (admittedly to start your stomach howling for the buffet car) and the trains are well designed, efficient and run to time. The trains also have a rather nifty table system. In between the facing pairs of seats, there is a central unit, with enough space for a coffee cup on its top. However, the unit also has flaps which sort of lift up and over to become a personal table space - this is very convenient unless you're a bit of a bloater like myself, and find that the lap-area provided by this table is meant for people with small laps - at this point it is relegated from very convenient to useful-but-could-be-a-bit-more-comfortable. However, I can't complain at the design of the table itself, it worked, which is more than could be said for the airline tables which required me to balance my airline meal at an acute angle because my thighs were present where the designers did not expect them to be!
On our arrival in Florence, we hiked over to the taxi rank and had to choose between taking a taxi or trying to find the shuttle bus, which the hotel had told us, by fax, that they provided. I had a quick look around, but could not see any obvious shuttle-bus-like presence and so we asked a taxi driver to take us to the hotel - the Forte Agip, in the outermost northern part of the city.
We'd chosen the Forte Agip, since we had been to Forte hotels in England and, thus, would know the minimum level of hospitality to expect. It was felt, by me, to be a reasonably low-risk choice. It might cost a bit more, but we would get accommodation that we would be happy with. We were a little concerned about how far out of the city the hotel was, but the thought of the shuttle bus made us feel easier and we were told that the taxi from railway station to the hotel might cost about seven pounds.
Written: May 1998
Posted: 12 March 2002
Ashley Frieze