I will start with the beginning. We arrived at Fiumicino Airport in Rome, but our luggage didn’t. It was stranded somewhere in France. The custom service representative at the airport confided that every day he processed at least fifty lost luggage forms. I didn’t ask how many of the bags ended up “really lost.” I was glad ours were found, albeit three days later. (Lesson 1: Make sure you carry enough underwear in your carryon bags. Do not pack any valuables in your checked-in luggage.)

Getting from the airport to the city was easy. The cheapest way was to take the train. That’s what we did, not realizing that the boy at the ticket counter had decided to charge us first-class fare and send us to the wrong part of the train (the conductor on the train discovered that). Not a big deal, we decided, and remained in the coach car.

The next day, to celebrate our arrival in Italy, my boyfriend and I went to what seemed like a not too expensive restaurant. We checked out the menu. The prices were indeed reasonable. Not being big eaters, we ordered fish and split the dish. We were charged 60 Euros! We tried to argue that no such price was on the menu, but the waiter—who up until then spoke remarkably good English—pretended he didn’t understand a word of what we said. (Lesson 2: Avoid telling strangers—especially waiters—that you are an American. There appears to be a misconception that most traveling Americans are rich.)

After that lesson, my boyfriend always remained quiet while I spoke to waiters using my natural, non-American accent. We had no further problems buying food at its actual price. We did get cheated twice with the train fare though. We also had a brief encounter with a con man and a gypsy thief. For details, read my article in Travel.