Originally Posted by
indyfabz
I got a chuckle out of your post. I haven't travelled by train in Italy in a long time, but it sounds like some things haven't changed much. I stuided Spanish in high school and college. One of the first Italian phrases I was able to translate was the common announcement in the station that the train will be departing 20 min late.
Funny, but this was the first phrase I learned in Germany. Awfully many trains are delayed, but I believe for a different reason than in Southern Italy.
I have been traveling by train in central and Northern Italy, and there the system works pretty well. It's just the Southern rural Italy where things become little funny and random.
Do the toiletes on the older trains still empty onto the tracks?
Definitely so for the type of trains that is on the picture above. I don't remember how it was for all other trains, but some had the newer system with a collector.