Scammed!
A few days ago, my friends Seth & Missy were in town visiting from Avignon, France. Within minutes of arriving at the train station, we were all "treated" to our first scam of Italy. It went like this: as we're exiting the train that has come from the airport, a man in a black fleece sweater approaches Seth. In English, he asks Seth for his ticket. Seth begins to reach for his ticket, and since the man's attire isn't as sharp as other uniforms I've seen in Rome, I ask him if he works for Trenitalia. Then, in the time it took me to ask and before I get can get an answer, Seth has already handed him the ticket and the man has disappeared out of site. In the aftermath, we realized that this guy knew that the ticket-stamping machines that validate the tickets at the airport were not functioning, and was probably hanging out collecting and re-selling tickets all day. Che furbo!
