it's really not that bad any more here in Italy, the trains are on time mostly in my experience, quite clean, comfortable, if blandly utilitarian.

ten years ago it was a national joke.

of course it may be due to the love affair between italians and driving that make the trains a passably relaxed experience, or maybe that the website for booking and getting schedules actually works and that frees up more staff to um, run the system.

before the net, it could take half an hour just to get through to a station master on the phone!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty