new book on the experience of Italy's passenger trains

Confusing signs and timetables, unexpected flights of stairs, often incomprehensible announcements and impenetrable rules—tickets that need to be validated, others that don’t—can make even the simplest train journey in Italy resemble the Odyssey at best, the Inferno at worst. “Italy,” as Tim Parks writes, “is not for beginners.” 

This sense of disorientation is fundamental to the experience of the country.

Tim Parks's new book, On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, in which he explores his adopted country through its trains, the lifeblood of a fragmented nation, is being released in NYC today.  More