Should be easy. Open Google, type "Italy Switzerland train route." Click.
It's been that easy for finding and booking even the smallest of agriturismas and hostels across Italy.
Kind signoras and slightly testier Italian dudes respond pronto to my emails requesting reservations. I write in English with lots of "pleases", they respond in very readable, if not grammatical, English. (Hey, I'm only on lesson 49 in my verbal Italian lessons, so I am easy to please!)
But the train thing's been a drag.
And that's where travel journalism comes in.
Journalists writing in this genre not only inform, but seduce. They describe, but with dispassionate warning when necessary. The best is literary nonfiction, the worst an "If you go" box.
And if they leave out critical details like "happy hour is, sadly, not available," they win my curses.
I LOVE reading travel articles almost as much as I love traveling.
Prague, please. Tokyo tomorrow. Hong Kong by dawn.
Someone, please, find me a New York Times article explaining trains across the Alps.
This train to Interlaken -- extreme sports capital of the Alps, a place that has been on my I Must Go list for decades -- is a thorn in my side.
RailEurope.com is a tourist trap.
Sbb.cn tells me it's too early to book, and "screw you" when I troll for a map.
But -- a HA! -- then I find ferroviedellostato.it
And it becomes a Travelocity exercise in mystery train station codes.
I will figure this out.
You may help me.
We will all go canyoning together.
We will do travel journalism in Europe together.
I know I'm going to love it, since the last travel article I wrote was about old-timey country music venues in southern Kentucky.
And I'm thinking of my friend Ann Koblenzer, who is in Interlaken RIGHT NOW, according to her Facebook page.
Rock on, Ann.
I'm on my way. Point me to track 59.
