In July 2019, I stood on Platform 23 at Milan Centrale with a literal puddle of sweat forming in my shoes. It was 104 degrees, my Trenitalia app had crashed for the fourth time, and I’d just realized I’d spent €80 on a ticket for a train that had departed ten minutes ago from a platform that didn’t technically exist on the main concourse. I ended up sitting on my suitcase for three hours next to a vending machine that only sold lukewarm sparkling water. I felt like a complete idiot. But that’s the reality of ‘romantic’ European rail travel…