Angels In Italy

After the long flight to Frankfurt, Germany, Susan experienced a short moment of panic when she stood in the middle of the airport terminal surrounded by German speaking people and couldn’t read a thing on any of the signs. Of course, they were written in German. She hadn’t thought about that. Standing there like a lost child she thought, “I’m going to start crying in the middle of this airport. Think!” Then it came to her. Someone had once told her that if she ever felt lost in Europe to look for the big “I” sign for “Information”. There it was, shining like a big blue beacon.

She walked over to the counter and asked the man behind the desk if he spoke English. He replied, “Of course! How may I help you?” With a sigh of relief and a happy smile Susan told him she needed to board a train to Florence, Italy. This kind man gave her the information she needed for the direct train to Florence. She wouldn’t have to change trains.  She thought, “Yes! I can do this alone!” She had already eaten on the plane so she didn’t need German money for food. She could wait until she arrived in Italy to get Italian lira. As she walked over to her train platform she kept telling herself, “If I feel lonely or uncomfortable or lost, all I have to do is turn around and go back home.”

With the “I” man’s directions, she easily found the correct train and climbed aboard. After a short stroll down the aisle she found an empty compartment with two couches inside. Since this would be an overnight trip she thought a couch to stretch out on would be quite nice. It was a very nice compartment. The couches were comfortable with wide shelves above them where she could put her suitcase. The window was huge so she would have a perfect view of the country as the train whizzed by. There was a door to close for privacy when she slept later. This was going to be a great trip!

Susan had only been seated a few minutes and was looking out the window. She was feeling jet lagged from her long journey and was thinking about how nice it would be to sleep when the train started rolling. She jumped when she heard voices! She turned her head to see 3 Italian men entering her compartment. They looked a little startled when they saw her sitting there in the corner. They spoke to each other in Italian, shrugged then took the remaining seats on the couches. Susan had no idea this was a sleeping compartment that had to be reserved in advance. They hadn’t entered her compartment… she was in theirs! As the train pulled away from the station, all Susan could think was, “Oh my God! I’m going to be spending the night on this train with 3 strange Italian men!”

As the train clattered along they all sat there in uncomfortable silence for about 30 minutes. Finally one of the men began a little shy conversation with her in Italian. She smiled and shook her head from side to side. With her hands spread she said, “I don’t understand.” When he heard her say this he spoke to her in timid English, “Where are you from?” She said, “I am an American traveling alone.” He gave her a big smile and exclaimed, “Ah! You are American!” He paused for a moment then asked in an astounded voice, “You are traveling alone? Are you crazy?” She answered, “Yes! Yes!” They all looked amazed. Then they started laughing.

Now they all seemed quite excited to be able to practice their English with her. She learned two of them were uncle and nephew traveling home from a wedding. Their names were Ricardo and Edward. The other man was traveling home to his family from his job. His name was Frank. All the men took family photos from their wallets and proudly showed Susan their wives and children. When she told them this was her first time to Italy they excitedly began telling her all the places she should visit while in Florence, Rome and Venice.