Italy & Switzerland

We said good-bye to Chad and Laura on the Vaparetto dropping us off at the Train Station stop, while they continued to the bus station stop just beyond.

Our train from Venice to Milan was on schedule and pretty full. We talked to another passenger (Sarah) who was American, but lived in Italy and was fluent in Italian. She wanted to know about my CO2 monitor.

I use the CO2 monitor to check for air quality/ventilation - more than than 800 is unhealthy. Usually, on trains and planes, CO2 ranges from 600 (GREAT) to 1500 - 2000 (bad). I've never seen it higher than about 4000. (At 800, 1% of the air is exhaled from someone else. At 2000, it's 4%. At 3000, it's 7%, at 4000, it's 10%).

We were shocked to see it climb well above that, to 7000, then 8000 and on up!

Thirty minutes after Verona, our train stopped and stayed stopped for 45 minutes. The CO2 levels soared up to 9999, then had an ERROR message. (the monitor doesn't record higher than that!). The levels were off the charts with a stopped train full of people - even with their AC running! Horrific!

Finally, there was an announcement in Italian. Sarah translated that they had found a WWII bomb and trains could not proceed to Milan. (See photo of sign in English).

They were re-routing us back to Verona and through Bologna to get us to Milan. So we reversed and returned to Verona 30 minutes later. And then waited. And waited. An hour passed. Sarah heard the train folks (in Italian) debating what to do, and talking about sending the train back to Venice!!!!!!

Sarah had an important meeting in Milan she could not miss, so she began calling rental car places. We agreed to go together (thank heavens for Sarah!). We walked 1/2 mile to Avis, and then Sarah drove us to Milan! By the time we got to our hotel near the airport, it was late and dark. We should have been there about 3 pm. We don't know if our train ever got to Milan. (They should fix their ventilation system!)

Long, eventful day. Grateful to be near the airport for our flight home tomorrow!Читать далее