God Bless America

Being in Roma has its benefits because of its central location. I have plans to travel to countries most dream of going, but I also plan on traveling within my current homeland. I tried to book tickets online for trains to several popular destinations. The website trenitalia is pretty simple as there is a link to translate into English. But you have to be on top of your game to score a good price. It's worse then booking planes. If you know when and where your going, book 3 months in advance because if you don't you'll be spending 50 euros instead of 9. So I tried my attempts online. This country isn't really built online as the US or other countries are. My attempts failed has a error message in Italian appeared "can't process your request." WTF! I booked hotels/hostels on American sites, use the credit card all through Italy but booking a train ticket, in my best Italian accent, "forget getta about it."

So I went to the train stations as I hear you can book through the vending ticket booths. 5 minutes there, I was bombarded by foreigners, beggars, gypsies and sketches. I kept my bag tight close to me, my attitude on my face and viewed screens that warned "watch for pick pocketers." I got so annoyed I left to come back with only my card and keys, as I was with several electronics and a wallet. Third try back... You need a pin for your credit card. WTF! Who knows that? I walk back get my debit, withdraw cash and head back for a fourth attempt to get my tickets.

Success! But only with two trips. Third time was not a charm as it stated "system not responsive. " I tried several machines, and didn't understand. I cursed under my breath. I attempted to go to the information booth. WTF! You have to get a number and approximately wait 40-50 minutes as there is a few dozen others who can't book their tickets, or who knows what problems they are also having. My thoughts, God Bless America that my home is there because this shit is cray! Nothing is simple here or explained in the right manner. I tried other machines because my time is valuable, time is money, as most Americans think. Finally success but only through the help of a gypsy. My problem wasn't that the system was unresponsive. It was because I was not to choose the seats on specific trains. What a simple solution of not giving the option of choosing a seat could save a dozen of people to not wait for the information booth for such a SIMPLE problem. A simple message of do not choose your seats instead of system not responsive would suffice. But like I said WTF. The gypsy requested money but I like to change the world one person at time. One should want to help someone without asking for anything return. Four attempts and five tickets later, my trips are booked. But all in all, Italy should hire the gypsies to explain the machines so the average costumer gets in and out of the terminal, the gypsies are paid and I don't think that America is the greatest country on earth to live, because I was raised I want something and I want is done yesterday, efficiently and economically.