Two new things happened today. I met up with another tutor and got out of town for a few hours and I got my first fine on the train.

In Italy (and maybe other places, but this is my only reference point), you have to validate your train ticket before you board. There are little yellow boxes you put your ticket in and it stamps it with the date and time. I knew this, however for some crazy reason, didn't think it applied to regional trains. Which was the one I was getting on. I bought my ticket and 30 seconds later, the train arrived. I got on. I was going 2 stops. 2. The conductor came to me before the first stop. He looked at my ticket and then just stared at me.  He spoke low enough for me to not understand what he was saying - in any language. He sat down and called me strange (in Italian). I explained I was American. He seemed to take this as a good enough explanation. However, after learning I was from NY, "Oh, that's different." (And now we're in English) Not sure in a good or bad way, but whatever. We studied my tickets some more. The train stopped at the first stop and he even had my return ticket in hand. He said he would be back. He comes back after we pull away and says "In Italy, you have to validate your ticket." "Lo so." "No, you don't know." "Yes, if I don't do it, I get a fine." "Well, if you know that, why didn't you validate it." Really? Did he think I WANTED the fine. "OK, give me 5 Euro and we call it good." 5 Euro - more than the 3.30 Euro the round trip ticket cost. Granted 5 Euro won't break me, but I was still frustrated. Just the fact that he was a bit of a jerk about it. Well, in my mind he was a jerk anyway. But I paid and made it to my stop without further incident.

I met the other tutor in Civitanova. It's a cute little town with shops and cafes. A few more things to see than Porto San Giorgio, but not too much more. We walked around, I finally got my Italian phone number, and we stopped for a drink. My first one since I arrived! 3 wines later, I boarded the train back to my town. I was a nice evening to get out and have a conversation that didn't involve some form of charades. And now that I know how to get to this little town easily, I can go other times as well.

Of course I remembered to validate my ticket on the way back and of course, no one collected it. Figures. However, I think all of the times I was running for the train in Milan and didn't validate it and got away with it caught up to me. Everything always catches up with you eventually!

Tomorrow we're off to the mountains!