italiafile

I'm nicely back, as my mum would say, from Rome... well, it's the first day of the Lazio sales and the siren call of Prada called me as my most comfortable boots are wearing thin. For the usually 'oh so bored by shopping' Romans, today was a turnup for the books.. queues down Via Condotti to get into Gucci. I dont know what they were offering, but it was more than Prada opposite, which had precisely no people in a queue, not even of any sort, when I bowled up just before 10 am. All of which meant I was in, out and had shaken it all about by 10.15, which left the rest of the day free to potter...... and buy more shoes in Pollini.

Why am I telling you this.. well.. it gives me an opportunity to tell you about the train. And more importantly, a fabulous new innovation that Trenitalia has introduced... the TICKETLESS TICKET. Gone are the days of standing in endless lines at stations, gone are the days of kicking recalcitrant self service ticket dispensers... like Ryanair and Easyjet, I simply logged on the trenitalia website yesterday, chose my train, paid and printed out my confirmation email. Today I presented it to the capo treno who looked like I had just handed over a ransom demand for his daughter. While easy for the 'customer', it's a little more complicated for the conductor, who has to tap tsomething inscrutable into a pocket pc, then angle the infra red port so it beams something digital to the ticket machine, print off a ticket and receipt, and all while the train doing its level best to ensure man and machines end up on the floor. It may seem like a nothingness to you, but believe me the hours I will save from not standing in train station queues are .... well... hours. And as we all know... hours not to reason why.