Assignment: Walking: The Speed of Transportation
Throughout Italian Discoveries, I have visited numerous Italian cities, and they all represented very different eras of Italian history. Three I would like to focus on are the medieval towns of Venice and San Gimignano and the postmodern city of Milan. Although these cities contrasted each other in many ways, the one that stuck out to me was the speed and efficiency of their transportation methods.
We began our stay in Venice, the city without cars. Instead of getting in the back of an Uber to get places, we were taking vaporettos or walking to get wherever we needed to. While vaporettos are a more postmodern addition to Venice, the method of boating remained since the medieval era. Gondolas, rather than vaporettos, were used for transportation. On our first day in Venice, we were lucky to go on our own gondola ride. During this ride, I noticed how slow we were travelling. Our speed was determined by the gondolier behind with a singular paddle, not a motor. The slower speed allowed me to fully take in my surroundings. Each bridge we crossed under and every clothing line of clothes stood out to me. I was able to participate in the act of noticing as we utilized this medieval form of transportation. As de Botton writes, “The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace” (de Botton, 2018). There truly is a serenity and pure bliss that comes from slowing down travel. I was not focused on getting anywhere; all I was focused on was taking in the space around me. By truly embodying de Botton’s phrase, I could fully view Venice in all its glory without the worry of time.
I had a very similar experience in San Gimignano, one of the best preserved medieval towns in Italy. Unlike Venice, San Gimignano relies only on foot transportation, or walking. However, the sentiment of slowing down transportation in order to enjoy beauty still stands. Walking through San Gimignano forced me to take in the entire scene of the city. From misaligned bricks to a lavender-themed store along the street, I noticed it all. When we were walking, I began to hear Pirates of the Caribbean played on a violin, and I was able to stop and listen. I would not have been able to stop if I had heard him on a train or bus. Walking allows people to stop where they wish, unlike postmodern forms of transportation. These forms predetermine where one can stop; we have lost part of our freedom of choice in the postmodern present.
Following Venice, we took a high-speed train to the postmodern urban city of Milan. I experienced the impact of postmodern life on the train before we even stepped foot in Milan. De Carteau writes, “The unchanging traveler is pigeonholed, numbered, and regulated in the grid of the railway car, which is a perfect actualization of the rational utopia. Control and food move from pigeonhole to pigeonhole…Only the restrooms offer an escape from the closed system” (De Carteau, 111). Although I had never viewed trains in this way, De Carteau echoes the feeling of travel by train. I sat in my seat the entire time, unmoving due to the fear of getting stuck in the aisle. I was nestled between armrests; I was travelling motionless. Unlike walking or boating, It was hard for me to appreciate the scenery around me. Occasionally, I would gawk at the Dolomites, but for the most part, I was focused on the readings on my computer.
That was another aspect of the high-speed trains that differed greatly from the medieval: WiFi. WiFi was present on the train to Milan. Transportation was no longer a way to absorb the world around you; it was simply an act to go through in order to reach a destination. In order to add efficiency to this necessary transport, trains added WiFi for people to do work on. In the postmodern present, efficiency is the purpose of transportation, and that’s all.
The efficiency of transportation is heavily present in another aspect of Milan: the metro. A dark and desolate space underneath the bustling city where people go to reach their destination in a short amount of time. Google Maps might tell you walking will take 20 minutes, but if you take the metro, you’ll get there in 3. The metro was incredibly fast, but the experience was less than enjoyable. People were packed tightly together, and I was too focused on avoiding pick-pockets to truly enjoy my surroundings. However, there were barely any surroundings to enjoy; outside the metro window was pure darkness as we passed through the tunnels. The design of the metro leaves little opportunity to engage with the surrounding environment; it was simply a means to get to the end.
Postmodern culture is so focused on the final destination that we have lost the beauty of the journey. We no longer “stop and smell the roses” because we are too focused on finishing our to do list. Even though we are so focused on getting places in a timely manner, trains are often late. In the medieval world, it’s easier to control your own time. In our postmodern world, our time is not ours. Not only can we not enjoy the journey to get somewhere, but we are often met with anxiety of not reaching our destination. Multiple times in the train station, I was worried we would miss our train. I never worried I would miss anything when we were simply walking around Venice because there was nothing to miss.
Transportation echoes the needs of the people. In our postmodern world, people need to reach places on tight schedules. Hence, high-speed modes of transportation that can accomplish this. If we just slowed down, we could appreciate more beauty within the world because there’s so much.
Citations:
de Botton, Alain, The Art of Travel. New York: Vintage, 2002 ["On Possessing Beauty"].
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988.
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