The Arrogant Emu

Thursday, June 20

Trains in Italy are an interesting business, and I was already beginning to discover that. We had bought second-class tickets, and the mass of us were dispersed throughout the cars, whereever we could find seats. Amadtaed and I, fortunately, found a couple of seats together. When you are not entirely sure of what you are doing, and even less sure of what your power to communicate is, it is a comfort to have someone equally confused along. (I am sure it is also a comfort to have someone less confused along, but of an entirely different sort.)

Much to my chagrin, when the ticket lady came by to punch our tickets, there proved to be some sort of problem with ours. This required some explaining, which was difficult since my Italian and the speaker’s English were about of an equal level, and neither were up to explaining the intricacies of the system. They were perfectly adequate for indicating them to someone who already knew them, and the answer turned out to be very simple indeed.

Even then it wasn’t clear to me until I moved a couple of cars down and asked Sikomtheo, who was bound with Prima for Siena, what was going on, and just why it was that Amadtaed and I had been charged an extra five euros because of a problem with our tickets. Apparently we were on the the Diretto, but had tickets for the Intercity. When we had simply asked for tickets to Firenze, the office at the train station had sold us the cheapest ones, not the ones for the train which was next due to arrive at the station. I was more than a little irked, but I suppose train stations have to make their money too, and it was, after all, my own fault.

What a great difference having done something even once makes! Now the "D" and "IC" which dotted the posted train schedules in the stations made sense to me, and now I would never again make the mistake that I had just made. Such a little, little piece of information! Such a simple experience! And yet it never would have occured to me to ask before, and so no amount of deduction could have served me the same.