Day 1 (Sun., 15th May): Misadventure at Milan train station

I could not believe what happened to me at Milan train station. After all, I pride myself to be a seasoned backpacker. It’s an old lesson reinforced in Milan.

I booked two train tickets for Trenitalia online and was supposed to collect the physical tickets at one of the automated machines at the train station. Whilst I was attempting to do that with TooToo at my side, a lady dressed in uniform approached me to teach me how to use the machine. I assumed that she was an employee of the train station. Due to the heavy backpack, plus navigating the info and buttons at the machine, I had my hands full, trying to balance everything. Thus, I lowered my daypack to the ground between my legs.

I made the first error by packing all my cash, passport and my beloved 10X optical zoom digital camera in that daypack. I never do that previously but … call it stupidity! The second error I made was in lowering down my guard and leaving my daypack unattended, even though it was set between my legs! Never, never ever do that! Italy is a dangerous place especially in the big cities where tourists are often the targets. A colleague of mine lost his handphone inside St Peter’s Basilica just a couple of days before. It was all the more shocking because that is a holy place! (OK. I’ll concede that technically St Peter’s Basilica is not in Italy but is a part of Vatican City.)

In any case, while the lady was instructing me on the use of the machine, I suddenly felt something brushed my legs. I looked down and my daypack was gone! Sudden panic came over me as my entire life i.e. cash and important documents were all in that pack. I looked around and saw this man casually walking away with my daypack in tow! He was walking, mind you … not running. I shouted at him. He stopped, stared at me and reluctantly handed my daypack back to me, and then went on his merry way without a care in the world. The casualness of the whole incident left me speechless. I looked around expecting someone to help me arrest him but no one did anything! They watched the incident and then went back to doing their own thing, as if this was an every day occurrence. That’s apathy for you! I turned back wanting to ask the station employee to arrest or hold the man for questioning or something. But she just looked at me, shrugged and walked away.

At that moment, another colleague who was on his way to Siena and was taking a train at the same station came to the automated machines to check on us and to find out what was holding us up. By then, the other guy and the “lady employee” had disappeared. I collected our tickets from the machine but was still shaken. Thank god for great colleagues who dragged me to a coffee place to get a hot cup of cappuccino to lift my spirits! There, we met up with another three colleagues for breakfast before departing for our separate destinations ~ they to Siena, TooToo and me to Trieste.

What a morning! And what a way to start our backpacking holiday.