This may be just a wild rumor, but I was in the coffee shop this morning(in California)and Carlo, an elderly Italian man, told me there is a big Italian rail strike going on right now.<BR> <BR>This makes me nervous since we leave in a week for Italy and plan to travel by train. <BR><BR>Is this just a one day strike, a big strike, or is Carlo misinformed???<BR><BR>Thank you,<BR>Michelle

www.trasportinavigazione.it/Allegati/scioperi.asp<BR>Michelle: Don't know about today but. A regular and very informative Italian poster on rec.travel.europe said that the General Transport Strike on the 18th for 8hrs will be a major one.<BR> I realize this is 3rd hand information but. I've been reading his posts for over 5yrs now and if I was going to Italy this month and planned to do any traveling on the 18th, I would change my plans. Just my opinion. Good-Luck Regards, Walter

Michelle: I went back and reread his post. He said it is going to be a General Strike also involving other services along with the transportation industry. Regards, Walter

On our second trip to Italy, with our three young kids, we had Eurorail passes. In Nice, we learned that the Italian rail was going on strike. At great expense, we rented a car to drive through Italy. Everytime we arrived at a town, "our" train seemed to be just pulling in. Our kids laughed their heads off. We later were told that Italian rail strikes are kind of wildcat affairs, very unpredictable, and not really widespread, but inconvenient if you happen to be on one of the targeted routes. If you absolutely have a strict itinerary, I'd rent a car. If you can wing it for a day or so, I'd risk it. We'll be back in Italy in November, relying on the rail so I hope it's managed.

We've found the same thing. Their strikes are not as we envision a strike to be. They are advertised and it seems to mean a reduced number of trains. We had tickets for a train going from one town to another when there was a strike. We were told to wait and a train would be along to take us to our destination, and so during the strike the train showed up, we boarded and got to our destination. M.

Thank you everyone. Yes, I checked out the strike web-site and luckily we will be in a car by Oct. 18. We'll just have to keep on our toes!!

If you look at the greenish box at the bottom-right of this page you will see a link to a page giving details of transportation stikes that are planned in the near future. It is in Italian but eay to understand, SCIOPERO means strike and on October 18 there will be a general strike for 8 hours. http://www.italywithus.biz/

Italian transportationds strikes are by no means wildcat ones. On the other hand, since railway transportation is a basic service they must be carefully planned in advance, must not take place in some days or periods of the year and must not last more than 24 hours. THis means that if there is a strike it will last ONE DAY not the whole time you are in Italy!

Thank you everyone for your info. It is good to know that a rail strike cannot last any more than 24 hours.<BR> <BR>This guy in the coffee shop, Carlo, has been bugging me about taking the train for most of our trip to Italy. He thinks we should rent a car for the whole 16 days! No way!! We are starting in Venice and going down to Salerno and beyond. I'm not driving all that way and getting exhausted. I've been to Italy before and the train system is great. <BR><BR>Michelle

Just check out to make sure that the railways will not be on strike the vey day you _absolutely_ need to reach your outgoing flight airport and everything will be fine, at worst you will have to add one day somewhere and cut one day from some other place.

I wouldn't worry about a strike. We just arrived home from a trip to Italy and Spain two days ago. Just as recently as Monday we took a train from Venice to Milan. We also travelled on quite a few other trains throughout France/Spain/Italy in the past month. We never had a problem and everything was running smoothly as far as we could tell.<BR>Enjoy your trip and don't worry about it!

Michelle: Curiosity got the better of me reguarding the strike on the 18th and I did a google.com search.<BR> Just keep this in mind on the 18th, it probably won't effect you. But could some service you'll need also be on strike on that day? Autostrada gas stations? Toll booth attendants? Manned parking lots? Etc. I have no idea just guessing for a heads-up just in case.<BR> CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro) is the largest labor union in Italy (~5.5? million members). It covers alot of different trades, professions and services. And they have called for a *General* Strike www.eiro.eurofound.ie/ which I *assume* means everyone in their membership strikes? Regards, Walter

Walter is correct in being concerned about Oct. 18. CGIL called for a general strike in April, and it was the largest of its kind in several years. Everything was closed; services were as limited as they are on major holidays.<BR><BR>If this one is as successful as the one in April, then major services will be closed for the day. <BR><BR>But the union has a new head who may not be as charismatic as Coferati, so who knows what the outcome will be. I would plan on arriving at your destination the night before and staying put until the day following.<BR><BR>

There is always a train strike in Italy. Heck there are always all kinds of strikes in Italy. Besdies football it is the National past time!<BR><BR>US

Oh man, now I need your advice. We will be in my grandparents village of Moliterno(Basilicata) the night before. On the 18, we had planned to drive to our next destination in Sorrento. I had planned to maybe stop off in Vietri to shop for ceramics and go up the Almafi coast to Sorrento. Maybe we should just head straight to Sorrento. Uh Oh! I'm getting carried away here!! I'll just make sure I have plenty of gas!! Thank you everyone.

Michelle:<BR><BR>You will still be able to fill your car with gas at any self.service gas station, and the shops will be open. most shopownres will not strike along with the other workers, those who will, most probably will use other methods to support the strike, for instance giving the customer a leaflet explaining the motivations of the strike (this is what we will do at the bookshop) or leaving the shop windows without light or something like that.

Go!<BR> And don't worry about it! We were in Italy 2 years ago and there were several strikes. It can slow things down for a day...but that is all.So, be flexible and plan around it. If you hear rumors of strike..get the English copy of the Herald-Tribune..It will have a list of who is striking and at what times, for the week..While we were there the air traffic controllers struck daily from10:30am to 4:00 pm...I suspect a long lunch was needed! Boun Viaggio! Maggie