I was supposed to be in Milan yesterday. Got on the train very early in the morning at Brignole station and settled down to read a book. I love travelling by train and despite all the bad publicity trains get here for being constantly late, I still much prefer trains to planes and cars. Couple of minutes later we arrived to the next station, Piazza Principe. An Italian man came to the cabin (there are six seats in one cabin) and said that I was sitting on his seat. I took out my cellphone with the SMS from Trenitalia and checked my number and it was correct.The man went to get the conductor, who arrived just when the train left the Piazza Principe station. He had one look at my ticket and declared that it was for the next day (meaning today) and therefore, I did not have a ticket. And he was right. Naturally, by this time all the other passengers in the cabin were mighty interested in what was going on.
As this was an Intercity train, the next station was Tortona, an hour away. Luckily, the conductor did not start demanding that I should pay a fine, which would have been quite a lot (I think 80 euro). I am sure he had seen it all before and realised that this was a genuine mistake. I got off in Tortona and returned to Genoa, the day ruined!!! But I learned my lesson: when buying a ticket on the internet, check what you click on the travel date section before proceeding to pay...
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