In love and war, all is fair. This could be enough, very simply, to explain what happened yesterday in the Termini and Tiburtina stations in Rome, and in the Centrale and Garibaldi stations in Milan.
It will certainly not be love, but war, yes, a cold war, the one for dominance on the succulent Rome-Milan route, fought by the contenders (Alitalia, Trenitalia and Ntv) with all the means available, starting with the huge poster placed from Ntv in front of the arrivals of Terminal T1 of Fiumicino (and, that is, at the home of both of its rivals, killing the proverbial two birds with one stone) until yesterday, when this long story was enriched by one of its most curious chapters .
At seven in the morning, in fact, a team of boys, confused among the passengers, had deposited hundreds of advertising flyers on the Frecciarossa and Italo trains departing between Rome and Milan, in a veritable act of guerrilla marketing.
The flyer, his convoluted, asked which was the shortest trajectory to join two points (in geometric rigor, I believe, the right answer is a straight line), then asking the passengers to connect the dots, as in the game of Puzzle Week.
In the end, a promotional message from Alitalia emerged, which compared the duration of the flight (one hour and ten, net of journeys to and from the airports) with that of the train journey (two hours and forty-five), complete with code to purchase a discounted ticket on the Alitalia website. Com.
A war with no holds barred, therefore, in which perhaps, for once, it is the consumer who gains, given the race to the bottom unleashed between Ntv and Trenitalia, which now offers Rome-Milan tickets well in advance and in supereconomy even at 9 euros in (the maximum is 200 for the executive), while Italo's prices are included in a range between 35 and 130 euros. Those of Alitalia are higher, ranging from 99 to 289 euros.
In love and war, everything is permitted, even "treacherous advertising" under the nose of the enemy, who perhaps has even more taste. It was just one battle, one single. The story certainly doesn't end there. It's the competition, honey.
