New Zealand is a special case. For better or worse, New Zealand has given itself over wholeheartedly to tourism. A system of shuttle busses welcomes bikes and will gladly even forward unneeded baggage to lighten up before crossing a mountain pass. I heard of a case where a pilot flying a single engine charter service couldnąt find room inside and instead lashed a bike outside under the wing. In the vocabulary of the Kiwi bureaucrat, there is no such word as "impossible."

"Impossible" is the first word that Italian (and French) officials utter. They seem to regard bicycles as some species of dirty, dangerous, and unpredictable animal. A few local TRAINs in ITALY take bikes, but almost never the TRAINs which we needed to take. When possible, we took busses.

In ITALY, a network of blue RAMA busses seems to connect the smallest hamlets in both Sicily and Tuscany. We could count on being allowed to slide our bikes underneath in the luggage compartments of these busses without boxing or bagging them or removing any wheels.

However, we have trouble trying to use a regional, SIRA bus for a longer haul, from Tuscany to Rome. At the bus stop, the driver first uttered the dreaded "impossible" but relented after much begging and pleading. He then made us pay the equivalent of two extra tickets for the bikes and baggage . He did not give us tickets or receipts, a highly unusual event in any sales transaction in ITALY. Did he have the right to charge us these extra fares? Did he simply pocket this money as a bribe?

After a couple traumatic experiences with Italian TRAINs, we advise the following strategy:
1. Take a bus instead, if possible.
2. Buy some plastic and packing tape at a hardware store (ferramenta). Remove both wheels to shorten the package as much as possible. Wrap the whole bike in plastic. Liberally tape the plastic both to attach the plastic and to conceal the fact that this is a bike.
3. When you get to the station, donąt ask anybody if this is ok: they will only say no.
4. When the TRAIN arrives, boldly march aboard with the bikes and baggage. If the bikes will fit in an overhead rack, you are home free. Otherwise, look in an older car for a small baggage compartment. As a last resort, bungee the bike packages in one of the passage ways between cars where people hang out to smoke cigarettes. By the time a conductor gets wind of what you have done, it will be too late to put you off the TRAIN. If he gets angry, feign complete ignorance of the rules and the Italian language. Appear confused and helpless. It will appear to him far less trouble to just cope with the situation.

Our ultimate challenge was getting from Tuscany to the Da Vinci airport in Fiumecino, just outside Rome, in order to catch a morning flight back to the US. We dreaded going through Rome to connect with the airport. Where would we find stay overnight? How would there possibly be room on the Metro during rush hour the next morning?

[See "Airports" for details -- GF]

Randy Koch Plainfield, VT