Umberto still has the backpack from our first trip, military surplus, beat up and none too comfortable, with a pair of straps that cut into his shoulders. Corrado and I, in contrast, have bought two ultramodern camping packs. We’ve decided we don’t give a damn about total fidelity in our replica of the first trip.
Twenty years ago too, our train pulled out of Termini, Rome’s glorious central station. Umberto, perfect Boy Scout that he is, got there early and even brought a bag with food for the first part of the trip. Corrado, who hates trains, tried repeatedly until the last minute to persuade us to take a free plane ticket on his airlines, but Umberto was having none of it: “We went by train then and we’ll go by train now,” he brusquely dismisses the suggestion. First stop, then and now, Munich, the obligatory destination of any Eurail pass worthy of the name. Second-class couchettes so we could feel like the youthful globetrotters we once were. We have a four-person compartment designated—probably with a twist of irony—a “C4 Comfort.” The comfort in question consists of a plastic-wrapped drinking glass, an antiseptic hand wipe, a paper toilet seat cover, and—hear ye, hear ye—individually wrapped disposable slippers. While waiting for the train to pull out, we silently pray there’ll be no fourth passenger. No such luck: here he is. The world’s worst possible specimen of couchette mate: a nonstop talker.
I should tell you, privately, that someone about to die of cancer probably shouldn’t travel by couchette sleeping car. They told me that I coughed all night long, and I imagine that my friends considered the possibility of suffocating me in my sleep more than once. The absurd thing is that, by now, when I cough, it doesn’t even wake me up anymore. That night was no exception. A night train is like a magic cradle for me. The rhythmic clacking sound resembles a lullaby sung to you by a loving nanny. I slept and slept and when I woke up, the train was pulling into the Munich train station. And that’s when our trip really began to pick up.