It was just before the euro was introduced and we were travelling by taxi from Ciampino airport into the centre of Rome. The driver was charming. He pointed out the sites as we drove into the city, he joked with the children, he even took the trouble to reverse up a one-way street so that we could be dropped off right by the hotel door.
We’d agreed the fare at the airport – 100,000 lire. I gave him the note and turned to take the bags into the hotel. But he called me back and showed me a 10,000 lire note, making out that this was what I had given him. “Signor, you still owe me another 90,000 lire,” he said with a smile.
He wasn’t banking on the fact that I knew perfectly well that I only had 100,000 lire notes on me, and that a police car would happen to pull up a little farther down the road. He lost his nerve, pretended he had made a mistake and drove off.
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