Taking the Fast Train

Around and around and around we drove circling the Milano Centrale railway station trying to find a parking spot. I honestly just wanted to go. After spending two weeks in Milan I was done. My time spent there was up.

My cousins wanted to accompany me to the train. Being that I have traveled to and from Spain, Albania, DR and other countries by myself I really did not see the importance in having a send off. I can carry my bags, I can find my seat, and I can definitely find my way back to my apartment in Fi, which I was sure remained in the state I left it — cold and vacant.

At last, a spot opened up. One cousin stayed in the car and my host Nuccia rushed with me as I stepped on the new moving walkways that zigzag to the giant hall.

Covered by an arched roof I always walk with my head high in the hall. Nostalgia takes over. Worldliness and importance shuffle past me in their Gucci suites, exaggerated fashion bags, high heals and leather. Times like this I miss NYC and my corporate job that afforded designer jeans and gorgeous shoes.

Nuccia climbed onto the car with me and we said our goodbyes. I used to take time in saying goodbye to people, but lately it has become a habit. I am always coming and going, meeting and leaving friends so much so that departing has become tiresome. Physically and mentally draining.

Apart from my personal exhaustion from parting, there is something romantic about saying goodbye on the train. There used to be excitement in taking someone to the airport, only leaving until after seeing their plane take off. But in post September 11th, those days are gone.

Only at the train station can that dreamy, steamy goodbye exist. Unless Humphrey Bogart has arranged for your own private plane to escape from the Nazis, no one can say goodbye or catch a loved one at the gate. Trains make the goodbye personal and final. You see the person leave. And the person leaving can look out their window and wave adieu to their loved one. There is worth in that. For this trains are in.

Now that a fast train can carry me to and from Florence and Milan in about two hours, I hope to be traveling to one of the world’s fashion capitals more, and will put my personal issues with “farewell” aside and insist that I find my train on my own less.