Around Town

The commute to school is almost always a ten-minute journey by foot. The only time it would ever stray from that is if one were to choose to take one of the several longer, more scenic routes by the nearest park or past the river or the gelateria for a quick treat before class. But never has the trip taken more than 15 minutes, because the school is actually down the street from the studentato, or the dorms. Every morning it’s just a short walk to the main street on the right, then go left on that street, past the grocery store, laundromat, parks, restaurants, cafe’s and pizzerias until you get to the correct cobblestone road on the right that holds the school.

As far as I can tell, public transportation isn’t used very often in Italy, or at least in Mantova. Everything within Mantova is within walking distance, and the only time I’ve used public transportation is to go places outside the city limits. The one time I took a taxi was to get to a club, and my taxi driver was very amiable and had a great sense of humor. He didn’t mind in the least bit that our Italian was shaky and we still managed to hold a fun conversation with him. My friends in the other cab, however, had a less than ideal situation with their driver, but they got to the destination before we did. So I suppose you could say that, while taxi’s are useful for getting out of the city quickly, your experience with them is based on your luck with the kind of driver you’ll get. Our group of students also took a day-trip to Bologna, a nearby city, for some sightseeing, and we decided to take the trains to get there. It was a little tricky, because buying individual train tickets wasn’t something we were used to having grown so accustomed to the MBTA, but somehow we managed to get on board. The train certainly got us to our destination faster than any other mode of transportation would have, but it still took around two hours. We lucked out, however, that we were able to find a train that went directly from Mantova to Blologna. Most destinations require a series of trains to get to from any given place. So with taking the trains here, it’s important to know your route and to find destinations within a reasonable level of directness from your point of origin.