13 April 2011
(during a week’s trip to Italy, without the bike)
Half way through the train journey from Rome to Livorno I notice that two of the men in our carriage are wearing the same belt. It is a white canvas belt with large holes with metal rings. They also have the same shirt, same jeans, and same shoes. They have stubble on their chins. They must be at least 18. Far too old for twins to be dressing alike.
Lucy on the train
The train from Naples to Rome was a modern, fancy train, like the Eurostar, with a TV screen displaying a map of the train’s location as it sped across the countryside. The seats were new, large and comfortable.
The Rome to Livorno train is slower, stops more and is divided into 6-seat compartments. It is hot and stuffy. We are sharing a compartment with 3 young men. After I notice the identical outfits, I try to figure out if the two men really are twins, without staring too hard. They both have spiky black hair. One of them has the letter A etched into his arm, as if tattooed in red ink. The one without the tattoo reads from a tiny book, moving his lips as if in prayer. I know Italy is very Catholic but praying on a train? Maybe the men are in some kind of religious cult.
The third man has a huge, sparkly Dolce and Gabana watch. He helped us put up our suitcase. He spoke a little English with an accent I assumed to be Italian. We are in Italy, after all. Three Mediterranean-looking, dark-haired, tanned man on a train would be Italian. Wouldn’t they?
An hour before we reach Livorno, some police board the train. The woman has a gun in a holster. In the UK police don’t carry guns unless they are terrorist police, in which case they would have machine guns. I don’t think British police ever carry handguns.
The police make their way through the train. They finally come to our compartment. The “twins” have no passports and appear not to speak Italian. Or English. The police do not look pleased. They take the third man’s passport. I am surprised to see it is British. The police gesture as if to ask if I know them and I motion that I do not. The third man has the same shoes as the other two, but in a different colour. He tells the police he does not know the “twins” either but I’m pretty sure he had been talking with them when we got on the train. The police also take our passports and I wonder if they are going to contact me later about these men with no passports. Then they leave the train.
There is only one suitcase in the compartment other than ours. The twins keep dozing off, waking up and looking a bit nervous, and then dosing off again.
It is a long journey. I can’t believe our “rubbish” day of the holiday, the day of the winding, never-ending, car-sick bus ride, was only yesterday. It feels like days ago. We had a big eyeful of paintings and mosaics at the Naples Archaeological Museum this morning before our train. We saw most of what we missed at Pompeii, including many paintings and “wallpaper” frescos like we would have seen in the House of the Vetti, which had been closed when we visited the ruins.
Wall paintings from Pompeii
