Trains in Italy

I was in Italy the second half of September, using the train intensively, and I noticed nothing special.

She might have been on the trains or at the stations at a crowded time (maybe during peak rush hour?), but it takes a considerable amount of imagination and paranoia to blame the refugees.

Italy has a population of over 60 million people, and a rail system to move them around. How many refugees do you think it would take to crowd the system?

Those were my thoughts, as well, but I figured I'd ask...
Thanks!

It depends when exactly the visit was. Milan was extremely crowded in September as apparently everybody took his/her chance of visiting Expo at the very last time. Trains to/from Milan were packed.
There is not an outstanding refugees crisis in Italy. They are arriving as usual and are trying as usual to get to Norther Europe, but the flux is stable and now most of them try the Balkan itinerary. - Germans, not used to humanitarian troubles, panicked as soon as the first groups approached their borders.

We were in Italy during late October, early November. Took trains from Rome to Orvieto, Florence to Venice, Venice to Milan. Not overly crowded, and each train ran exactly on time. Guess we got lucky? Not one issue and we had read about crime etc. in stations. Enjoyed the facilities (luggage storage in Milan). Definitely would consider train travel in Italy in future.

While not recently, I travelled in a number of locations around northern Italy in mid-to-late September. Some were "busy" during the day but not overly crowded, and I didn't see any refugees in that part of Italy.

We live in Roma and travel extensively by train. With few exceptions, on-time performance is the norm. Trains are generally pretty full, but refugees are not using Italian tourist trains from what I can see. If you are in a non-metro area you will see a lot of locals commuting by train, and certainly many of these are workers of various nationalities. And we have many African refugees/immigrants/migrants in Roma, mostly panhandling. But refugees en masse in the trains, no. There was a refugee "camp" near Stazione Tiburtina but it was very small. Not sure it even still exists.

We were in Pisa, Cinque Terre, Moneglia, Lucca, Sestri Levante October 10 for two weeks. Used trains up and down the coast and to Lucca and back to Pisa. Trains were on time, not too crowded, and easy to pick online. Getting tickets at the stations from the machines was also extremely easy to figure out and use.

Back in July we did have our train car "rushed" by about 15 Somali or Eritrean migrants at Brennero for the short ride down to Innsbruck. It was disconcerting to have the car not in the complete control of the conductors but in the end nothing happened.

Only thing I noticed in Late September was in Rome. They had a make shift gate setup with 5 openings where someone was checking your ticket. And you couldn't access the train platform without a ticket. Took a few minutes to get thru the line but nothing super long.

I just spent many hours on trains to get to Roma today, starting in southern Germany through Switzerland - five trains, all full but no issues with crowds on trains or in terminals. More police and army around.