Visit the new gallery here.
One that got away: I didn’t get a picture of it, but a few months ago, coming into Milan’s Central Station, I saw a train engine on which someone had scrawled: “Sex is boring” (in English). Poor dear. Must be doing something wrong.
Graffiti-ers in Italy are called “writers” (using the English word). They often decorate the commuter trains. Which look better this way, really.
One artist added this motto: “Colora et labora” – paint and work).
The lower-quality photos were taken with my cellphone, during the time that my digital camera wasn’t working.
Too much window coverage on these (above and below).
my full collection of train graffiti
Great photos!!! This graffiti doesn’t really bother me. I really get upset when I see graffiti on buildings and momuments that are hundreds of years old!!!
Good photos. It’s worth checking out Banksy, search for him on Google or get his book (Wall and Piece) from Amazon. He does stencil graffiti but with a very witty anti-authority twist to it. It’s worth linking to some of his pix because more people should really be exposed to Banksy’s work.
yea i think it should be left on it looks better that way i write i do trains n walls n sum of the trains i habve done have been left
nice shit. makes me wanna move to Italy and throw pizza at the Pope. Or dangle from a rope. Or dress in black and cry all day. Somebody’s gotta be a baby sometime. Where’s the mama? sez1=http://sez1.com. Art is for the living.
ciao, avresti altre foto di treni???
ciaoo
Daro’ un’occhiata, ma al momento credo di aver messo su’ quasi tutte le foto decenti che ho. Adesso sono fuori dall’italia per un mese, dunque non ce ne saranno nuove per un po’.
Those pictures are beautiful!
In Germany, graffiti is also very popular. It is considered poor taste by the artist to spraypaint over a window, though! And… if you even THINK of spraypainting a French TGV, there are serious consequences!
Hello Deirdre just a quick question on the graffiti on the trains, I was wondering are these one offs by this I mean do you see one peice aweek for example or do most trains have something on ? I would like to know because I am a graffiti writer and I life to do city breaks to places where graffiti runs frequently on the trains, so far I have been to Rome Napoli, Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam, and I am thinking of Bucharest and now maybe Milan any reply appreciated.
On the corridor where I was commuting from Lecco to Milan 3-4 times a week, I saw several decorated trains every day. Interestingly, either I was seeing different trains frequently, or the graffiti was cleaned off and soon rewritten pretty often. In the last year or so I tended to see the same pieces more than once, so perhaps the cleaning schedule slackened. My guess is that the short-run commuter trains get decorated more often than the inter-city trains, and the Eurostars are better protected. So you’ll probably see a higher proportion of decorated trains at the local stations (Porta Garibaldi, Lambrate) than Stazione Centrale.
ps You might want to ask the Italians on http://www.bombersboard.com/ about it – they’re actual writers. I noticed them because they hotlink my photos.
Thanks Deirdre for the reply will have to get saving, but I am going to Napoli in May so cant grumble. ciao Timo