Beware... and other Rome, Italy Warning Or Danger Tips

You must definitely beware of pick-pockets, there are plenty of those in Rome unfortunately. You must particularly be careful of gypsies and north african people (not to offend anyone), they are very skillfull to take your money out no matter how well hidden or "safe" you think it is. Get a good grip of all of your belongings, avoid showing off any jewels or expensive items while using public transportation, and try not to carry with you big amounts of money or any important documents such as your passport or credit cards.

As far as I was told there are not really violent assaults to try to take your belongings away from you: these people rather do it very subtly (in a crowded metro car, for example) and you hardly realize it happened until it's too late. So keep an eye on you wallet/purse/bags! A fanny pack (or bum bag) -those you tie to your waist- proved very useful for me, never lost sight of my money and stuff and I never lost a dime.

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I thought that the craziest drivers were in Mexico City and that it was impossible to find others that drove as recklessly because we were the worst ever....... Foreign people who have lived here for years are still afraid to drive within the city because it can get dangerous.

Well, if Italian drivers aren't worse than ourselves then they're very close competitors to say the least!! By the time I traveled to Rome in the summer of 2007 I was already used to the Scandinavian way: people being respectful of traffic signs & considerate of pedestrians, speed limits being observed and all. Even Parisian drivers are famous for being crazy, but I was in Paris right before flying to Rome and I have to say that I never felt in danger in Paris but cannot say the same about Rome. I did not remember from my first trips to Rome that drivers were so reckless - they were in Napoli but not there - and I did feel like crossing streets in Rome was life-threatening!! In general, they won't stop if they see pedestrians trying to cross the street... There aren't traffic lights everywhere so you really have to be careful when crossing a street where there isn't one or when walking along the little cobblestoned super narrow streets in downtown where the cars and scooters come out of nowhere at full speed and couldn't care less about the people walking by.

Well, I guess the only advice I can give you is to be very careful and try to cross the streets on the designed/striped areas (even though they are usually disrespected by the drivers anyway) and along with other people, so the drivers will have to stop even if they don't want to..... it's harder to run over a crowd than over a single person.

Watch out not only for cars but for scooters as well -- sometimes these are even more numerous and their drivers are just as reckless if not more, and they can be driven through the narrowest streets where the cars cannot come in. Incidents between cars and scooters are also frequent, as I was told by a local -- no wonder!!

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