{"id":14996,"date":"2021-01-22T08:11:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T08:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/?p=8996"},"modified":"2025-12-31T19:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:54:08","slug":"6-essential-italian-train-vocabulary-words-advice-from-the-expert-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/tips-travelers\/6-essential-italian-train-vocabulary-words-advice-from-the-expert-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Essential Italian Train Vocabulary Words: Advice from the Expert Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Italy’s busiest train stations can turn into a place to meet your Italian best friend!<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly\u2019s trains are places of group confession and collective absolution, which is ideal for a country that calls itself Catholic. [\u2026] We are a nation where everyone speaks to everyone else. [\u2026] Follow the conversations on this train to Naples, via Bologna, Florence, and Rome. They are public exhibitions, with their own rituals, virtuoso touches, unexpected confidences, and surprising fits of shyness. One quickly reaches a note of intimacy in Italy, and speaks about personal matters.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Beppe Severgnini: writer, columnist for the Corriere della Sera<\/i>, and (most impressively, for the generation of tech savvy social media buffs), most followed Italian journalist on X<\/a> (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

Italian is not a language that you can master in the classroom. This is something I found out the hard way, when I stepped onto an Italian train\u00a0after having studied the language at my American university. That morning\u2019s walk to the Roman train station was a relentless repetition of what I thought to be \u201cessential train vocabulary\u201d \u2013 biglietto\u2026<\/i>ticket, binario<\/i>\u2026platform, fermata<\/i>\u2026stop, <\/i>and mi scusi<\/i>\u2026excuse me\/sorry. <\/i><\/p>\n

Free hugs at the Venice train station…a full vocabulary might even get you one!<\/p>\n

My only regret about that fateful train ride? It wasn\u2019t that I hadn\u2019t sat in the occupant-free cabin to free myself from the \u201cunexpected confidences,\u201d but that while I was busy studying the Essential Vocabulary<\/a> of the Italian Train Station, I neglected to study the essential vocabulary of the Italian train experience \u2013 the words you should know to be an active member in the lively conversations on Italian trains. For this blog, I went straight to the experts\u2026THE expert, I should say. Beppe Severgnini, himself, renowned Italian journalist and author of countless books on the Italian language and culture (some, such as La Bella Figura<\/a>, <\/i>from which the quote above is taken, are also available in English), and self-proclaimed train enthusiast. My letter and his response <\/a>were published on the site of popular Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera<\/em>, and I’ve placed the English translation below.<\/p>\n

Expert Words of Advice: The Real<\/em> V<\/span>ocabulary You Need to Know<\/h3>\n

Riding the trains not only offers benefits such as this view from Taormina, Sicily.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I wrote to the esteemed Sig. Severgnini (translated from English): What are the words that you <\/i>really need when you are speaking with people on the trains? I mean phrases such as <\/i>boh, the very informal dismissive interjection that you might use when someone puts you in a bit of uncomfortable situation and you don\u2019t know what to say, or <\/i>basta punto (period!) when you want to highlight that the phrase you just said was, is, and will forever be that way.<\/i><\/p>\n

Recognizing the need to equip his country\u2019s foreign train travelers, Beppe graciously responded with this list of necessary and basic vocabulary that you need to know when riding on the Italian trains (translated from Italian with English clarifications):<\/p>\n