We had been in Italy less than three hours before we ran foul of the ticket inspector for not validating our train tickets. Having asked specifically for tickets for a particular train and whether seats were assigned etc., it never occurred to us that they had to be validated in a small yellow machine tucked away in the corner of the station, and our salesman, who spoke good English, did not offer this information. The ticket inspector fined us 5 Euros each and, when we complained, pointed out that the maximum fine is 50 Euros, muttering about L'Anglais as he wrote out our fines and showed us a picture of the validation machine. Perhaps this has coloured our view but, in general, we do not find the Italians as cheerful or helpful as the Croatians and
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