As always, the Swiss train bringing me to Italy was fairly on time.
It arrived in Milan with a 15-minute delay. I had to run a bit to catch my next train, but that was no problem.

The next Italian train left right on the minute. It arrived at my destination 5 minutes early.

Enough time for me to jump back on the train to grab the suitcase I had left in the luggage rack 😂.

Unfortunately, not enough time to jump back off with it 😅.
So I had to stay on and get off at the next station.

20 minutes later, I caught another train back. This one was also perfectly on time.

On the way back to Switzerland, I was warned about a large strike causing massive disruptions to buses and trains.

My bus to the train station was perfectly on time.
My train to Milan left with a 5-minute delay and arrived right on the minute.

Turns out, the strike was actually limited to a few selected minor routes.
But of course, it was enough for people to claim that “in Italy, nothing works.”

A lot of negative things are said about Italy. Many of them are false or misinformed.

In the picture: the new shiny EuroCity Swiss train from Zurich to Milan.