Train from Venice to Rome 15:20 – 21:05, 20th Jul 1997On the train south: after Bologna the countryside was uncannily like Maharashtra – green and hilly, the farms and houses more like India than England. Sunflower fields. The whole train journey was about 5.5 hrs, and I didn’t once fall asleep, alternately writing this letter…
Milan en route Venice 20 Jul 1997 Need to change trains at Milan: I killed some hours walking to the YH, but found it had shut for the morning. I did not yet have a reservation for staying the last night on the return trip, but I thought I’d figure something out later – this…
Foreword 02 Apr 2026 These are from 31 pages of handwritten notes from July 1997, written across the trip itself – in hostel common rooms, on trains, on a station floor at 2am. I was 25, living in Reading UK, working for ICL on a project called OpenPAS. I’ve always loved train journeys since I…
