This is my day of travelling by train from Frankfurt to Florence.

Left Frankfurt at 8:01 am.

Mannheim at 8:44.

Karlsruhe at 9:10.

Starting to get hilly.

Freiburg at 10:15.

Vineyards and there’s frost.

Gone past the German-Switzerland border.

Basel at 11 am.

It’s been only German speakers around me. But now two guys are speaking French.

No more sunshine.

The route has been changed today. Instead of Luzern, the train is stopping at Rotkreuz.

Rotkreuz at 12:13.

Lake Zug or Zugersee in German. Not on the schedule but we’ve stopped here. Too bad it’s so cloudy.

Arth-Goldau at 12:42.

Bellinzona at 1:47. Signs are now mostly in Italian.

Lugano at 2:12. A return of the sun. Two guys speaking Italian got on.

Crossed the Swiss-Italian border. Almost at Chiasso at 2:45. Passport control on the train.

Como San Giovanni at 3:00 pm.

We’re running a bit late. Monza was supposed to be 3:21 but we arrived at 3:25.

Arrived Milano Centrale 5 minutes late but the train for Florence didn’t have a platform assigned. The 4:15 train didn’t get a platform announced until 4:00. It means there’s a lot of people waiting and staring at the departures board.

We arrived on time at 5:59 pm. I managed to walk directly to my hotel in the dark.

The hotel faces the church of Santa Maria Novella.