The silent fellow traveller on the train (Rome–Venice, Italy)

The train from Rome to Venice left at 7am and was to get into Venice around 3pm.  I was in a window seat of a 6-seat compartment, facing an Israeli couple with a little girl of 4 next to them.  Her young(ish) Italian mother was on my side by the door, with a cat in a cage next to me, meowing mournfully every now and then—the cat, that is; not me. 

The Israeli couple and I admired the cat aloud to the owner, and expressed our sympathy, but it all left her unmoved.  Not very sociable, is she?  We then cast affectionate glances at the little girl, and conveyed friendly admiration of the little girl’s cute ways, but again, Signora Uppity didn’t need our approval.  The Israeli couple exchanged raised-eyebrows-and-shrugged-shoulders looks with me, and decided to leave her alone.

Not long after the train pulled out, the Israeli man whipped out a cigarette but found he had no matches.  I had a book of matches, so passed it over, which he returned after using one match.  This went on for another few times, after which I just told him to keep it.

This gesture of friendliness moved him to the point of striking up conversation, in English: where was I from, was this my first time in Italy, how long was I staying for, did I like Italy.  When I said I particularly liked their figs and grapes, he went, “Oh, then you should come to Israel.  Their fruit is nothing compared to ours!  Ours are so much bigger and sweeter!”  He carried on in this vein, whatever the feature of interest.  

When the train came to a halt in the middle of nowhere (just bare fields around) at mid-day, and sat there in the baking heat for hours without any announcements or explanations, he said, “This is what this country is like!  They are always late for everything, they are so incompetent, they are just useless!”

Finally we were approaching Venice, some two or three hours later than scheduled.  Everyone jumped up in anticipation of rushing off the train, after having been cooped up for so many more extra hours.  

At this point, Signora Uppity said, in perfect English, “We’re not in Venice proper yet.  We’re only on the outskirts of Venice.  The station you want is the next one, which we will arrive at in another ten minutes or so.”  

The Israeli man’s jaw nearly touched the floor of the train.