A complex traveller’s tale of one railway station with at least four ticket offices
DON’T you just hate it when folk go on and on about their holidays? But please bear with me as I bring you a brief traveller’s tale from the heel of boot-shaped Italy. File it under ‘ They do things differently over there’ or maybe under ‘ I’ll never complain about CIE again’. During our four day break in Bari the food was fab, the sights were scintillating and the people of Puglia province were peerless in their hospitality. Eat your jealous heart out. On the other hand, this was no millionaire’s bolt hole…
The city of Bari has a population similar to that of Cork, located on the shore of the Adriatic Sea rather than on the banks of the Lee, obviously. It is served by an impressive network of railway lines, one of which runs from the central station to Alberobello, about 60 kilometres away. We had done our advance googling. So we knew that Alberobello is a UNESCO heritage site, famous for its fascinating stone houses built in the Trulli style.
Our difficulties began after we told the ever so helpful signorina in Bari’s tourist office of our wish to go to Alberobello. She was gushingly enthusiastic and offered us a piece of monumentally misinformed advice. We should on no account look to travel by train to Alberobello, she counselled. The bus was the only way, though the bus to Alberobello would leave from the railway station. And she urged us to be ready to depart for Alberobello shortly after 8 a.m.
The problem was, as we eventually learned the following day, that the train service from Bari to Alberobello had in fact been restored after repairs to the tracks. What had probably been helpful information the previous week was a complete bum steer by the time we happened along.
We were completely unaware of this as we arrived first in the queue at the ticket office at the hour prescribed next day. The man at the counter must have been bemused by these two eccentric foreigners as we repeatedly said ‘Bus’, ‘Bus’ while he sold us our ‘ Train’, ‘ Train’ tickets. The word ‘Bus’ in English may be translated as ‘Bus’ in Italian while ‘ Train’ appears to be ‘ Train’ but otherwise there was endless room for misunderstanding.
When the eccentrics continued to enquire about a ‘Bus’ the man at the counter obligingly waved an arm towards the road at the rear of the station. And in fairness to him, there were indeed buses plying their trade along the road at the rear of the station. None of them bound for Alberobello.
We eventually accepted this and shambled back into the railway station, just in time to witness the 8.15 train for Alberobello depart from Platform 11, several minutes late, at 8.23. We cursed. We sighed. We raised our eyebrows. We laughed. We decided that we would go instead to Matera.
This was by no means a second best option. Matera is also around 60 kilometres from Bari and it is also on UNESCO’s heritage list. It is famous for its cave dwellings.
So we asked the nice man at the counter for tickets to Matera. We asked in vain. The man at the counter waved his arm towards Platform 1. And beside Platform 1, we found a second ticket office. So we asked there for tickets to Matera. We asked in vain.
The woman at the counter in the second ticket office waved her arm towards the main door of the station. So we walked out the main door and espied another door over to our left, inside which was a third ticket office.
The woman at the counter in the third ticket office had excellent English – but she had no tickets for Matera. Her job was to sell tickets for the airport. Tickets for Matera could only be obtained at the ticket office ‘around the back’, she informed us.
So we went around the back but had no need to approach the man at the counter of this fourth ticket office. A sign proclaimed clearly that there would be no train to Matera for another five hours and we were not prepared to wait that long.
We meandered back into the main station and then noticed that another train was billed to depart for Alberobello at 10.15. We had time to enjoy a coffee before catching this service, which duly pulled away from Platform 11 bang on time.