Transit systems and walkability in Italy

Jul 20, 2023

Last month, I spent a week visiting family in Tuscany, Italy. My mom’s people originally hail from Italy (though more Southern), so traveling there’s always left me in a state of deep appreciation and reflection. This trip was also my first opportunity to think critically about how differently they’ve set up their physical surroundings from ours.

Let’s get the obvious points out of the way: Italy’s towns are way, way, way older than any city in the United States. This heavily impacts how dense and centrally-oriented Italy’s many cities and towns have developed over the course of millennia. That being said, Italy’s regional rail system, TrenItalia, is quite robust and makes traveling through the country without a car (for most of the trip) significantly easier.

One fact that surprised me was how Amtrak trains are technically faster than TrenItalia. Let’s compare the train ride between Rome and Florence to an equidistant train ride between North Carolina’s two largest cities, Raleigh and Charlotte:

A train ride from Rome to Florence takes 3 hours and 46 minutes for the cost of $26 USD
A train ride from Raleigh to Charlotte takes 3 hours and 10 minutes for the cost of $27 USD

This is a train ride that’s going roughly the same distance. However, TrenItalia easily beats out Amtrak’s service in North Carolina (and everywhere else in the United States) in sheer frequency of trains: including high-speed trains (which run at an hour and a half starting at around $40 USD), there are nearly 70 daily trains traveling from Rome to Florence. This compares to the dismal five daily trains running from Raleigh to Charlotte. The rail transit infrastructure in Italy towers over that of the United States.

Compounded by the inter-city rail transit is just how easy it is to get around by foot in large and small towns alike. Only in the United States’ largest cities can you comfortably walk around. It naturally correlates that America’s most popular tourist destinations that aren’t natural sites or monuments are also our most walkable cities (think New York, Boston, even DisneyWorld!). When Americans aren’t vacationing to walkable domestic cities, we travel abroad in droves to walkable European cities, including Rome and Florence.

My stay in Italy was centered in the smaller town of Cortona, conveniently located under three hours away from Rome by TrenItalia and under two hours away from Florence in the other direction. Even there, I found myself enjoying my morning walks to the piazza and my afternoon passeggiata (stroll), because these cities and towns are truly built for people rather than the cars they drive. In the most ancient of cities, parking lots were kept outside of city walls and were only used when residents had to travel to areas they couldn’t otherwise get to by foot or train.

Of course my trip to Italy wasn’t just about trains and walking around- it was about resting, spending time with family and friends, and seeing the beauty that is Tuscany. In a couple weeks, I’ll share my experience stopping in Copenhagen for 24 hours on my way back to the States and what I learned about cities from my trip there. Until then, enjoy these pictures from my vacation!