How to move in short distances
You have already arrived at your destination by plane, got from the airport to the city, and now want to travel from one region to another… how to do it? What kind of transport to use? If we were in Italy the alternatives would be two: either rent a car or move by train.
In almost all Italian airports there is a wide choice of companies that rent cars with unlimited mileage. Personally, I chose Europcar because I often arrive in Italy at the Marco Polo – Venice airport and the connections between this airport and the cities are not very comfortable (especially if you are loaded with suitcases). And we must specify that, thanks to specific political and economic choices of the past, Italy is tailor made to depend on cars! And not “on a human scale”. Probably to support the development of car manufacturers in northern Italy … but this is another chapter.
But thanks to this economic policy choice, the development of the road network infrastructure between the various cities and related services in Italy is quite valid. The “Autostrade per l’Italia” network has more than 3,000 km of roads (for a fee) covered daily by more than 5,000,000 cars with an average cost of around € 0,10 / km (make your own calculation about this cool business). The Italian motorways are very well served mainly by the Autogrill group that provides services for the people who travel and, as you know, in the first place in Italy there is coffee and, soon after, good food. The average journey time in Autostrada is 120 km / h, that is to say that Venice – Milan is covered in about 2 hours 11 minutes on 241 km of motorway at a cost of € 25.00. So renting a car in Italy is not bad if you think about traveling on the highway, but if we talk about the parking theme then things get complicated (but this is another chapter).
But if you do not like the idea of traveling by car, for some routes there are excellent connections by train, but just when we are talking about Eurostar Freccia Rossa, Freccia Argento and Freccia Bianca trains that traveling between 360 and 200 km per hour. To move from Milan to Rome I prefer to use Eurostar Freccia Rossa train that takes me from the center of Milan to the center of Rome in just 2 hours 59 minutes for the price of € 170.00 (executive level) rather than using the plane.
In Russia the symphony changes completely. Here the journey by car is a real adventure and it is difficult to indicate an exact average distance. I only remember to have traveled 6 hours to do Moscow – Ivanovo in 2009, i.e. 300 km at an average speed of 50 km / h … a madness!
If instead we think about the train, here the only connection I know is that Moscow – Saint Petersburg that travels 700 km in about 4 hours with the train called SAPSAN. If you plan to go by car on the same route, instead, a paid highway that connects the two main cities of Russia has just been inaugurated but that I have not yet driven by car.
The rest of the infrastructure of the road network of the largest country in the world is completely unpredictable. Often there are no lights and road signs, which does not make the roads safe. I say this with full confidence, as I traveled by car along the South of Russia along the routes Rostov-on-Don – Nalchik and Rostov-on-Don – Sochi. I sincerely do not recommend this experience to repeat to anyone – this is a real torture!
While in Russia, I still recommend using airplanes, but, unfortunately, many flights can only be done with a transfer in Moscow. Therefore, you will have to make two flights to reach a location not far away. For example, if you want to travel from Rostov-on-Don to Sochi with Aeroflot, you will need to land in Simferopol, and only after that in Sochi (552 km in 21 hours!). There is, of course, the opportunity to use the services of Azimut and get to Sochi in 1 hour and 5 minutes. But personally, I do not like to fly with new companies, not tested from the security point of view. So let’s equip ourselves with patience and while traveling on the roads of this mysterious, unpredictable and constantly changing country in the car!
But, I hope, in the not so distant future from Rostov it will be possible to get directly to Sochi with Aeroflot!