The magnificent Duomo in Milan
The second episode which I encountered was during last year's visit to Northern Italy Lombard region. After 12 glorious days savouring the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the Lombard area, we were heading back to Milan from Venice. My wife and I were satiated with all around us. Wallets thinner, health restored through days of long walks and appetites fulfilled with the finest Italian cuisines. We were ready and happy to head home.
We booked the Business Class carriage departing from Venice to Milan. Our error was to not take the non-stop train. Rather, the train we took was with several stops in between and that was where we were outsmarted and conned. Let me sidetrack and say this :
The Italian people are very accommodating and nice. There are many polite ones and there are the not so nice ones. Every society has its good and bad hats, there are no exceptions. It is a sad state that many major cities in Western Europe have major crimes ranging from gang attacks, stabbings to petty crimes like burglary and pickpocketing. The fact that there is rampant petty crimes in any country indicates the level of social degradation over the years in that country.
Piazza de Duomo Milan in 2017
The root cause is economic stagnation (sometimes for decades) leading to an underclass who resort to petty theft to feed themselves.Its a sad situation when people have to rip tourists who essentially bring much needed commerce and cashflow to a country. Italy had a major economic crisis in 2008 and had to borrow money from the IMF.
Gargoyles on side of Duomo
Back to my (mundane and unfortunate ?) story. We settled into our Cabin which had marked seats linked to ticket class and passenger name. So I thought we were in the clear. My wife and I sat facing each other and I put my backpack above me in the clear glass overhead rack and hung my trenchcoat by the side hook, there are 2 for every 2 seats just above the window.
The train left the station and I looked around the cabin. The people there were all businessmen and women. Well dressed and seemed to be regular commuters on this type of train. I had foolishly left my passport, and my phone inside the backpack.
I dozed off while she was occupied with work on her phone. The train stopped at a couple of stops and I looked up ever so often to see that the backpack was there. This was my long held procedure to be alert.
Along the way, some people came into our cabin and on the pretext of sitting at the next set of seats behind us, placed another backpack right above mine. I was threequarters asleep and did not notice anything amiss. Since there were backpacks, I thought one must be mine and I thought nothing of it.
The person who did this was very schooled in the art of deception. They must have tried this trick numerous times on numerous trains with considerable success.
At the next stop, he or she got out and took my backpack. I was dozing and never took notice.
Only when it pulled out of the station, I got the shock of my life. My backpack with my precious passport and phone were gone ! I went into overdrive, my wife did not see anything amiss and went to the station master.
I reported the loss to the station master and the rest of the journey was fraught with worry and frantic planning. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to buy travel insurance and only the passport and spare phone were gone.
I will leave that story for another post soon.
Christmas Market by the Duomo Milan
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