In the eighties, in Russia, there was no honeymoon trips for "Just married" couples. Or at least, they were just starting to become usual. "Svàdebnoe puteshèvstvie", this was he Russian term. My man would have liked to go home with me for a while, to Florence, but he could not leave his work place for a long period, and not even I could get a passport and a visa so easily. So we had decided to make our "mistery ride" to Leningrad (confidentially: "Pìter") and back, on what had become a real, unofficial "train of love".
Some people, especially young, unmarried couples, took that train and went back and forth between our two "capitals", and so they had a discreet, although not always comfortable place to do what they intended to do, however. And nobody, not even the KGB, seriously intruded in it. Let alone tried to repress it.
So we went to the ticket boot with our passports (that's the rule, still now, in Russia) and get our tickets. My man had a business visa, valid for the whole USSR, and the lady in the ticket boot understood very well why we asked two tickets to go and back. We were neither the first nor the last... But there was a lot of people in line, so she did not said a word: just looked at us with a "you-don't-fool-me" smile...
Maybe because she had more time, maybe because she was elder, the lady who controlled the ticket near the train was a bit more intrusive. She asked us, whether we were married. My man said yes...
"A spràvka yèst?" she asked. She wanted to see a documental proof. I hesited to show my passport with the annotation of our marriage (on Italian passports this is not possible), but my man had a certificate, and he showed it to her without problems.
The lady seemed satisfied. He gave back the paper with a slight smile.
"Svàdebnoe puteshèvstvie..." she snorted. She knew we would have been back the morning after, it was on the tickets... quite a short trip...
"Màlo vrèmeni" answered my man, shrugging. Few time... The lady smiled wider. She too appreciated a foreigner who spoke Russian, with not so much accent...
"Posdravlyàyu..." she said, inviting us with a wipe of her hand to climb on the wagon, as if she was inviting us at her home. We thanked her for the wishes and climbed.
"A bit curious, that "bàbka"..." my man said. "Bàbka" was the colloquial term for a "no more joung" lady... but not yet a "bàbushka"...
"It was nothing." I snorted. "She was worried that you were corrupting me, maybe..."
"Corrupting you?"
"Yes! She knows the custom, that is, that young people use this train for making love. And likely she closes her eyes about it: she too has been young. But she has seen you, a foreigner, and me, a poor, young, naïve Russian girl... So she has thought you were getting me to make love with you on this train, that is, you were taking advantage of me, of my naivety, of me weaknesses... And she was galled about it, maybe. This train is even HER train, after all, she is responsible of what happens on it... But when she has seen that we are "mush I jenà" already, well, then... "Vsyò v poryàdke", all in order! We can go with God!"
"Yes, it can be!" my man laughed. "What do you think she would have done, if we had not been married?"
"I don't know. It depends on the limits of her zeal... And I ignore them... Maybe she would have let us pass all the same, but not with her best wishes, as she has done... Maybe with a very unfriendly glance, for both, especially for you... Or maybe she would have called the police, and they would have ascertained if we were going to make love for love, or for money..."
"Or for a pair of jeans..." my man said. I nodded, snorting.
"Or for a pair or jeans..."
We reach our compartment. My man said it was not so different from that of an old Italian train. Not new at all, spartan, a bit run down, but the bedcloths were clean. And that was the matter.
We were perfectly conscious that we would have not seen "Piter", except what could be seen from the railway and from the station, if not just from the train. We would have visited it another time. We were not there for tourism... Or maybe yes. "Experiential tourism", so to say...
We shut the door of the compartment, set up or light luggage and then we were facing each other. My man caressed my cheeks.