Busy at the border

International trains (well most of them) still stop at the small stations on either side of the border. Here we are in Chiasso on the Swiss side of the border. A few minutes later, we stopped again at Como. There was some wandering around by customs agents and security people who seemed to have the power to check IDs, although they were not official border guards as far as I could see. Under Schengen, states are not allowed to do systematic checks at borders except in limited circumstances, but it seems to me from my limited observations that it seems to be an increase these days. Back in 2014-5, the blogger Jon Worth, who travels everywhere by train (and occasionally bus) was documenting this systematically from his travels.

This train (Zürich to Milano) was about the slowest we've travelled on during this trip, but it was very scenic, through the heart of the Alps. It was also good fun to go through the relatively new Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is even longer than the Channel Tunnel. The millions of tons of rock above us! The international train was bookended by two Swiss trains (an S Bahn and an Express) which took us from Murten to Zürich (heading initially north east before we could travel south), and then a Frecciarossa from Milano to Firenze, which raced across the plains of northern Italy at close to 300 kph before heading through a lot of tunnels from Emilia Romagna onwards.

Oh, and I've added an extra for Walking Marj. Switzerland really does have a place called 'Arth', although it shares its station with a neighbouring town called Goldau.

It was a lovely way to arrive in Florence, although to be honest the 'welcome' in Florence station was not great. It was absolutely heaving, but we found our way quite easily to the taxi rank. Even the ten minute walk to the hotel wasn't really feasible as it was raining and, well, because crowds,  narrow streets and rolling luggage don't mix well. But returning to the travel - I don't think I've ever turned up in Florence less stressed. Getting here by air almost invariably involves either a very early start, or arriving so late that it's hard to find anywhere to eat.

We headed out after checking in to find the pizza that Mr A had been channelling for the last few hours, and met up with JDz for a nice chat and a drink. Afterwards, she was heading to a party and we came back to the hotel and had a drink in our room.

Running tally this trip: 4 taxis and 9 trains (including an RER in Paris).