Thursday, July 02, 2009

Some Sad Rail-Accident News Out Of Central Italy

Posted by Peter Quennell

Viareggio (image below) is about two hours west of Perugia, on the other side of Tuscany.

It is a pretty modern town on the main coastal autostrada from Rome to the north and northwest, and a few miles south of the Italian Riviera and the coastal mountains that extend all the way to the Alps.

Two things you will quickly notice about Italy when you visit that wonderful country:

  • Their autostradas are astonishingly good, with thousands of tunnels to keep them relatively straight, and elevated sections like giant works of art in concrete.
    •  
  • Their rail system is one of the fastest and best engineered in the world and some of the Italian high-speed passenger trains approach speeds of 200 mph.

Eighteen are now reported dead in this extraordinary freak accident. Our commiserations to those suffering this sad tragedy.


Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/02/09 at 03:00 AM in The wider contexts,  Italian context

Comments

Oh how sad. I’ve been to Viareggio and was struck by how beautiful it is. You can stand in the ocean and see the mountains.

Posted by memphis05 on 07/02/09 at 04:28 PM | #

Ciao! Sad accident. Pete, you forget to mention that besides the high-speed trains (which is a much contested issue in Italy), train services in Italy in general is excellent and cheap - and mostly on time!

(It’s an old joke, that the sole positive achievement of Mussolini was to get Italian trains to run on time). The Italian company ‘Ansaldo’ delivers comfortable worldwide state-of-the-art technology in trains.

Fiori

PS: Aren’t the Apinini mountains wonderful?! (On the photo)

Posted by Fiori on 07/02/09 at 09:52 PM | #

Thanks for the comments Memphis05 and Fiori. We believe that Meredith arrived in Perugia by rail after she first arrived in Rome by air.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/03/09 at 01:32 AM | #
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