WHEELCHAIR ACCESS VIA TRENITALIA'S SALABLU -- PART 5

SALABLU DISABLED PASSENGER SERVICE BY TRENITALIA MAKES MAKES RAIL SERVICE ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT TUSCANY AND ITALY

Trenitalia has a fabulous service from Rome's airport to the center of Eternal City.

Rome is not in Tuscany and we had no plan to visit it during this trip.

But Alitalia airline screwed up royally and left Miami three hours late for the transcontinental flight.

We arrive in Rome when our connecting flight to Firenze had taken off.

So we saw Rome in a day -- and took the wheelchair accessible train (which less than 30 euro, or less than half the price of a cab).

From the Trenitalia website, here is some more information about services for disabled passengers (remember to forgive its shaky translations and awkward -- we would not say "people with mental handicap" -- phrasing.)

Assistance to persons with disabilities or reduced mobility

With the coming into force of (EC) Regulation No. 1371/2007, the terms "person with disabilities" or "person with reduced mobility" (PRM) have finally been introduced, equivalent definitions indicating people with reduced mobility, in the use of transport means, due to any physical disability (sensory or locomotor, permanent or temporary), mental disability or handicap, or due to any other disability cause, or for reasons of age, and whose condition requires adequate attention and service adaptation in order to meet their specific needs.

Our assistance service is provided by RFI - Rete Ferroviaria Italiana – and is addressed to: 

- individuals in a wheelchair because of illness or disability;
- individuals with limb problems or with difficulty in walking;
- elderly people;
- pregnant women;
- blind or visually impaired people;
- deaf or hearing impaired people;
- people with mental handicap

email: salablu.firenze@rfi.it

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=052ff172e719a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW, JULY15

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS VIA TRENITALIA'S SALABLU -- PART 4

SALABLU DISABLED PASSENGER SERVICE BY TRENITALIA MAKES MAKES RAIL SERVICE ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT TUSCANY AND ITALY

Heidi Johnson-Wright is pictured above at the modern, accessible elevator at Sienna's train station.

Sienna is a spectacular town with a gorgeous (inside and out) cathedral.

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government,  a series of frescoes painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti  the early 1300s, are still poignant today and can be found in the Sala dei Nove (Salon of Nine or Council Room) in the Palazzo Pubblico on the Piazza del Campo.

From Trenitalia's website (forgive the poor translations to English), here is information of Postobu, a program that provides Seat Reservation for Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM)

With “Postoblu”  reservation system you can book all your tickets when requesting assistance, at Sale Blu or by calling our Call centers for all types of tickets currently valid on Express, Intercity, Intercity Night, Eurostar City, Eurostar Italia, Eurostar Italia High-Speed and EC trains (on national routes), finalising the payment and collecting your travel documents at a later stage.

“ PostoBlu” allows you to book:
• Equipped seating areas (with safety anchor system for wheelchairs) and relevant 'associated' seat for any accompanying persons;
• Seats reserved to PRM and their accompanying persons;
• Ordinary seats, couchettes or wagon lits.

PRM's accompanying persons can avail of the “ Postoblu” service only when travelling together with the accompanied person. 

“Postoblu” does not apply to international tickets, to tickets for cumulative service, to season tickets and to group tickets.

email: salablu.firenze@rfi.it

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=052ff172e719a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW, JULY15

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS VIA TRENITALIA'S SALABLU -- PART 3

SALABLU DISABLED PASSENGER SERVICE BY TRENITALIA MAKES MAKES RAIL SERVICE ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT TUSCANY AND ITALY

Florence's Santa Maria Novella station is one of the few modern, 20th century buildings in the central city.

It has an outstanding family accessible restroom (you push a button and they let you in without charging you the one euro fee that everyone else pays.)

It also has a restaurant, souvenir shop, news stand, and pharmacy -- where you can buy tickets on the run.

You can also stand in line to buy a ticket from a live person, or use the very easy to understand, multilingual automated ticket machines.

For our trip to Lucca, we were a bit concerned about the arrival city.

Lucca itself is fabulous, one of the few cities in Italy that still has its Medieval wall entirely intact.

It's just that Lucca is a relatively small train station and we wondered about assistance.

Not to worry, a trio of helpers were there on arrival.

For the return trip, our train departed from a center platform.

Lucca doesn't have elevators, it has strong workers (pictured above with Heidi) who gingerly "bump" wheelchair users along the tracks to get back up to the center platform.

All was well from Lucca back to Santa Maria Novella.

email: salablu.firenze@rfi.it

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=052ff172e719a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW, JULY 14

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS VIA TRENITALIA'S SALABLU -- PART 2

SALABLU DISABLED PASSENGER SERVICE BY TRENITALIA MAKES MAKES RAIL SERVICE ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT TUSCANY AND ITALY

Once aboard, we were in an accessible train car, with spaces for a wheelchair.

There also was the option of transferring to an accessible seat (Heidi doing so, pictured above) and folding up the wheelchair for the journey.

A huge, 100% wheelchair-accessible restroom was located very close to us.

When we neared the station in Siena, a conductor was on board to make sure we made it to the portable accessible platform device in that ancient city.

Having the conductor approach us made a huge difference, as we feared we could not get off the train without assistance.

On the return trip, a worker was there about a half hour before departure to show us how to use a series of elevators and a portable lift to board the return train even from the center track platform.

email: salablu.firenze@rfi.it

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=052ff172e719a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW, JULY 13

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS VIA TRENITALIA'S SALABLU

SALABLU DISABLED PASSENGER SERVICE BY TRENITALIA MAKES MAKES RAIL SERVICE ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT TUSCANY AND ITALY

We love public transit, but we always have a bit of trepidation about relying on trains to get us from one point to another -- when barrier-free access is the question and language barrier might prevent an answer.

Thankfully, the Salablu service by Italy's Trenitalia national passenger rail service is flawless.

We were able to research information online (albeit in poorly translated English).

Best of all, we were able to email the Salablu folks at Florence's Santa Maria Novella station.

A person with an outstanding command of English emailed us back and forth and soon we were planning day trips to Siena and Lucca.

The day we arrived at the station, a crew of three was there to assist Heidi with a portable lift (pictured above) to give her a platform level with the entrance to the train.

email: salablu.firenze@rfi.it

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=052ff172e719a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW, JULY 12