For nine years – nine years – I have dreamed of this day. For over four hundred days, I have been counting. Florence was amazing and it was sad to leave such an amazing city with so much yet unexplored. Yet every time I hear the phrase, “We are going to Reggio” out of someone in our group, a thrill goes through my entire body. After today, nothing will be the same for me. Everything in my life will be marked as “before Reggio” and “after Reggio”.

Our cabs arrive and we load up our luggage and head to the train station. The cab driver and I converse about life in Florence. She has grown up in this amazing city. I share with her that the city seems so big and wonder how a person learns to navigate it, but she says the city is small and everyone knows everyone. I tell her that we work in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States.  She says she feels safe in Florence. I comment that everything is so beautiful in Florence – the food, the art, the music, the history….everything.  She says, “That’s true.”  I tell her, “Life seems slower here”.  She responds “We take time to enjoy””. I think about that and I realize that this idea of taking time is a gift I have received here in Italy. I plan to take this gift home and will share it with others.

We arrive at the station. We get our luggage and make our way inside. I take the time to a cafe to buy coffee and a light snack before we journey on. We find our platform and find our car. At last we board our train, headed first for Bologna.  Goodbye Florence.

The train ride is quiet. We go through a long tunnel and then again, out into the sunshine and mountains around us. We have left the city now and the farm lands pour down the hillsides in green and gold. We relax and take time to catch up on our work. We all want to process what we have experienced.

Spoke too soon.  Whoosh!  We have to move, move, move to get off the train to transfer. We have six minutes to catch our next train and we don’t know where we go!  Frantically, we read the posted schedule. It’s definitely complicated! We see a listing for Reggio Emilia and off we run to get on the train – literally run!!! We split up to allow all of us to board the train quickly.  I haul my suitcase up the steps and onto a car as fast as I can only to hear I have boarded a first class car. Never mind.

We can move through the cars once everyone is on board. We all meet in the dining car and decide to just stand together for the twenty minute ride. At this point, Cheryl Priest from CMU texts the other half of our group only to find that they have missed the connection. Never fear! They are all together and that is good. They will catch the next train.

It is very hot and we are standing there fanning our sweaty faces and smiling. We are so close now. A few minutes passes and a conductor enters our car and asks for our tickets. Hmmmmm….it seems that WE are on the wrong train, and our friends who “missed” the connection are on the correct train.  Well how do you like that! We laugh and laugh at ourselves as we stand there like idiots. But wait. it gets better. We have to exit right then! The train was leaving in a couple of seconds. Gangway for the crazy Americans!!!

“Hurry! Hurry!” I shout and we split up and head to separate exits, hoping that none of us gets trapped when the train takes off again. Some poor guy was trying to get a drink at the bar and we had all of our luggage and everything, jostling and jolting through. I think he was fatally trampled – LOL!  Just kidding. But we blasted off the train, huffing and puffing.  We all made it off the train together. We cheer.

So here we sit in Modena waiting for the train that the others are already on.  It takes about 20 minutes and sure enough, here it comes roaring into the station. Not sure where we have to board, we ready ourselves for another frantic run,  we split up again and go for it, moving as quickly as we can.

Whew! Next stop – Reggio Emilia! Twelve minutes away. One more frantic escape from this thing and we are there. I sit next to my dear friend and kindred spirit, Suzanne Gabli.  This is a journey we have both dreamed of making for a long time and it is pretty emotional for both of us. (We are the sappy, criers of the group.) We arrive in Reggio.  “Here we go!” she says. “Ten years and here we are!”  “Nine years,” I say. We smile and make the last haul off the train and there it was – the sign at the station said, “REGGIO EMILIA”.

We shout, hoop and holler! Hugs and tears of joy – we made it. At last!!!