Sunday, July 3, 2011

At the Roma Termini

By Amanda Brings

AT THE ROMA Termini, I missed two trains to Florence.

For the first missed train, I made the idiotic error of mixing up the Italian words ‘biglietto’ and ‘binario’. The word ‘biglietto’ means ticket. The word ‘binario’ means platform. After paying my train fare to Florence, I looked down at the ticket and saw the number ‘1’ next to the word ‘biglietto’ and thought, “Great! The train leaves from Platform 1.” I lugged my suitcase to Platform 1 with an overconfidence that would later cause me to bang my head against the wall, repeatedly.

Thirty minutes after the train’s scheduled arrival time, and with no train in sight, I stormed over to the Trenitalia desk and demanded to know why the train to Florence never arrived. The polished and courteous gentleman behind the desk looked at my ticket and said, “Your train left from Platform ‘3’; the number ‘1’ simply means you purchased one ticket.” He kindly reissued another train ticket and handed it to me with a sly smile that said, “…and please, don’t be an idiot again.”

And yet, I did miss my train again. To be sure, I asked four different Trenitalia employees what platform I should wait at. All four employees told me a different platform number. In the end, I aimlessly roamed the terminal platforms, boarded the first train to Florence I could find, and profusely apologized to the conductor. He looked at my expired ticket, winked and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

I learned three things from my experience at the Roma Termini. First, never be too cocky or too sure of yourself. I think this is true for life, but particularly true when you are in another country or culture. Next, ‘binario’ and ‘biglietto’ are two very different words. Finally, there are cultural differences between Italians and Americans. I entered the Roma Termini expecting to find very clear and consistent boarding directions. Generally, in the United States, our procedures and rules, including boarding directions, are made obnoxiously evident. We value and expect precision when it comes to our time, and this is because our time is valued as a commodity. Italian culture does not appear to share this same value. Rather, when it comes to time and procedures, there appears to be more flexibility and wiggle room, and there exists more gray areas.

While this cultural misunderstanding of time and procedures may have initially caused my train mishap, it eventually worked to my advantage. Even though I didn’t have the correct train ticket, I was still able to get on the train. In the United States, rules are generally followed to the tee. If you don’t have the correct ticket, you are not getting on. In Italy, the conductor’s wink conveyed the message of: “You tried, close enough, now get on the train.”

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