Public transportation is relied on heavily throughout Italy as it is usually convenient and quite affordable to get from point A to point B. The transportation is safe and well managed, however, it is subject to the rippling effects of strikes. Before traveling to Italy, I was told to be on the lookout for possible strikes in public transportation. I thought to myself, this must be a rare occurrence, but during my time in Italy, I was proven wrong. A group of students traveled to the Cinque Terre in Liguria which is outside of Tuscany. During this weekend, we had not come into any issues with public transportation, and additionally, throughout all of my time in Italy leading up to this trip I had not had any struggles using the busses or trains.
However, when it was time for us to return to Siena on our scheduled train, we found that it had been canceled! What we did not know was that there was a train strike planned for all trains in the Tuscan region. Therefore, we could not get to Siena which is in the heart of Tuscany. We contacted our school and they told us to sit tight and we would be able to travel the following day. We returned to our hotel and waited to take the train back to Siena the following morning.
After returning to our hotel we spoke with the woman in charge of it and she explained to us that these strikes are something to look out for when you are traveling by public transport. The strikes extend between trains, buses, and even taxis for specific lines or regions. We also were able to speak about the experience with our professors at the Dante Alighieri school. It seemed in these conversations that these occurrences are accepted by Italians as a normal part of their transportation system. In regards to the strike that I was impacted by, starting in June the strikes throughout Italy have taken place due to wage disputes. Workers in the unions feel as though they are in need of a wage increase as the cost of living has increased drastically. Additionally, during the week following my return home, there were taxi strikes across the country as the drivers were protesting the government’s plans to deregulate the sector. Striking is the reality of public transportation in Italy and is something that you just need to get informed about before you book travel.
Based on these examples, the strikes seem to be a reflection of Italian nature. They are willing to stand up for their beliefs and will do it in a peaceful yet effective manner. As an outsider, the act of protesting by striking is seemingly very impactful. Not only does this affect the consumers of the transport, but this affects the larger corporations and eventually the government as they lose sales to these events. However, the benefit of Italian strikes is that they are scheduled. This information is shared online and should be researched before you are planning a trip. This is something that I learned firsthand and would not have had I done just a bit more research.