[Sept. 2025] We travelled by train from Milan, Italy to Lyon, France‘s second largest city.
It was our first time there.
I’d heard that Lyon is a city of fine cuisine, so I was excited.
We boarded the Frecciarossa, Italy’s high-speed train.
At Milan Central Station, there was a bottleneck at the ticket gates, even though the train had already arrived.
It seemed the machine wasn’t working properly.
I was getting annoyed when an old man in front of me stood there blankly even though the gate had opened, so I pushed him out with both hands.
The people behind me laughed at this.
Despite that incident, the rest of the journey went smoothly.
But the four and a half hour journey was long.
Having previously travelled by train from Paris to Milan, I underestimated the journey and was unprepared.
What surprised me was that police officers boarded the train at the Italian-French border and inspected our passports.
It seemed odd that such a check existed within the European Union, where people are allowed to move around freely.
I suspect it was a measure to prevent illegal immigrants from entering France, who had arrived in Italy by boat from North Africa.
A French man sitting next to me, who apparently had no idea such an inspection existed, was scolded by the police officer for not having proper identification.
I think he probably showed his driver’s license.
When we finally arrived in Lyon, we found that the train station was large and modern.
From there, we took the metro to our hotel.
Having done some research beforehand, we bought 72-hour tickets (€18.20 per person).
Researching these kinds of small details can make a big difference in the final cost.
I feel like we missed out a lot on our spring trip to southern Germany.
This time, we got to Ampere-Victor Hugo station, the closest station to our hotel, fairly smoothly, with just one change.
Thanks to Google Maps, we arrived at the hotel without getting lost.
