Travel brings excitement in smaller ways, too.
Sue needed a watch. Conveniently, in the Galeria Umberto I in Naples (lovely “mall” similar in style to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan), I find a “mobile vendor” (guy with a fistful of watches walking around the Galleria), who offers me a Daniel Wellington watch for 30 euros. Considering that the cheapest Swatch we could find was 45, this is already not terrible. If it’s real, and maybe not stolen. But he obviously does not need 30 euros, as he goes on to “what will you pay?” from there. I offer 8. Objections follow. I walk away, am pursued and we close for 8 (and I am surprised).
Fundamentally, it is impossible to take advantage of a street vendor – they know their costs, we don’t. But I was surprised, assumed it was the end of a long day and he wanted to go home, that it was counterfeit (because the DW logo had a backwards “D”), that it was stolen…something. 5 weeks later, it is running perfectly, we have found out that the backwards “D” is the official logo, minimum price for a real one is around 100 euros…and Sue found a YouTube video on how to tell a fake. It’s fake. In bulk, they can be purchased from China for 4 euros each, plus shipping. It is impossible to take advantage of a street vendor.
Train tickets in Italy must be validated by a machine before you get on the train. En route from Naples to Foligno (change in Rome Termini, and with car service from Foligno to Perugia), we have 38 minutes to change. This is our 10th train ride. Only twice have we been asked to show our tickets, but every time we validated. Earlier in the trip, we saw a guy jump off a train, validate his ticket, and jump back on because he saw a conductor coming. In one case, we used entirely electronic tickets on my phone. We arrive in Rome on time, and all the tracks are right there, so we go for a sandwich. When our track is posted, it’s in Termini Est – a long slog to nowhere – and now we’re late. We don’t see a validation machine on the platform, so we just get on. The conductor is checking tickets today. The Italian guy before us has no ticket at all. We are not validated – too late to jump off and on. Our seatmates speak some English and try to intervene with the story about being late, no machine, we’re so sorry… He’s not having any of it. He takes our tickets, and shortly thereafter hits Sally and Francis – same story. Our seatmates tell us the fine is 50 euros/person. Ouch. He comes back in a few minutes and returns our tickets, punched with a lot of holes. Apparently says (in Italian) that his tablet is not working, and he’ll be back. We are now in a race between Italian Rail and Italian Information Technology (or we are more trouble to a civil servant than we are worth). Italian Rail wins. We depart the train in Foligno un-fined.
Lucca is a great city, and we loved it – except this is the single most miserable day of our trip for weather. Pouring rain, we have a walking tour arranged, and our guide is stalling in the Tourist Information Center, hoping it will let up. It was misting when we got there, so I left one of our umbrellas in the car. Bad call. Streets are flooding. Our tour guide leads us from undercover spot to undercover spot (a masterful job, actually) to give us the best weather-influenced tour I have ever had. One highlight was seeing stone-carved graffiti on the interior columns of the Church of San Michele in Foro, built in the 1100s. Grafitti made by the original stone carvers. However, even our guide’s skill can’t fix this downpour. Enter mobile vendor #2, standing outside the Tourist Info center. Small umbrella 5 euros, large one, 10 euros. Best 10 euros I ever spent (and he could have had 20). See it in action below (the purple one…we left it at our hotel in La Spezia as too large to carry home).
