by350

My fiancee and I will be making our first trip to Italy for our honeymoon in September. We are going to Rome, Amalfi Coast, and Venice.

I hear a lot about pickpocketing and petty theft. How bad is it?

RufusTFirefly

The vast majority of travellers will never encounter a pickpocket or thief, but there are thieves who target visitors, so you do need to be aware of what's going on around you. It's not that every traveller will be victimized, it's just that, allowing for the short time a tourist is in a particular location, it's more likely he/she will be victimized than the will general population.

bluefan

I was in Rome and the Amalfi Coast this past May and didn't come across one occurrence. In general, you don't have to worry about the Amalfi Coast unless you go through Naples. The only thing I encountered in Naples though was "official" taxi drivers striving for increased fares on two separate occassions. In Rome, there were polizia and carabieneri (sp?) everywhere. Felt safer there than my hometown of LA. I covered every inch (including Termini) with my camera bag sticking out as a tourist, but nothing happened...damn, and to think I was carrying around a wallet with nothing but useless plastic cards.

I wouldn't worry about Venice too much either as it doesn't get mentioned as frequently as Rome and Florence when it comes to theft.

Leave your worries behind; use a money belt correctly if you want additional security, and don't sweat it if you're staying at decent hotels which come with individual room safes. I kept wire-locking our luggage at every transfer point and felt stupid after a while. I guess it helped because we didn't lose anything, but it wasn't really necessary. Apologies to the people who have been ripped off, but Italy turned out to be a lot safer than the theft capital of the world that it's made out to be!

Judy

We travel to Europe once or twice a year, most recent trip included Rome and Venice, and have never been victimized. We do, however, put valuables in hotel safe, are aware of our surroundings and my husband (who's usually pretty clueless) uses a wallet that hangs on his belt but inside his pants. He keeps a few Euro in an accessible pocket.
I don't think the situation is bad but does warrant reasonable precaution, especially considering the impact theft might have on your trip!

daph

Someone tried to pick my husband's pocket as we were coming into Venice with our luggage on the Vaporetto. We were obviously enjoying the view and looked as though we weren't paying attention. He wasn't but I had been there once before and was. The guy had a large, obsolete camcorder and was pretending to film but reached under my husband's jacket with the other hand. I wacked his hand away and only wish that I'd been able to let him have it in perfect Italian, with a few obsceneties. I believe that since Venice has no subways that this is its equivalent of the London tube and Paris metro, where there is quite a lot of pickpocketing, Paris especially.

djkbooks

There are "safety" tips in every tour guide and throughout this forum. If you heed the advice and recommendations, you just won't have to be concerned.

Basically, leave everything (extra cash, credit cards, your passport) in your room safe or the hotel safe that you don't need for the day while out and about. Leave your wallets at home.

While out and about, carry a photocopy of your passport, and keep anything really important to you under your clothing. There are any number of nifty travel accessories for this.

All in all, the pickpockets and petty thieves select their targets based upon that which is easily accessible. So, just ensure that anything important to you isn't.

MD

Some guy tried to pick my pocket in the Milan subway. They tried the old squeeze play - one guy gets on the train slowly and the other pushes up behind me and tries to use jostling to hide the fact his hand is in my pocket.

Very amateurish - but I found my typical North American naive reaction was that it took a few seconds to realize what was going on. I grabbed his hand, yelled at both of them, and my wife who was behind both of them shook the one and yelled even more.

It was pretty amateurish because the subway was pretty much empty. It was far too obvious. In a crowded rush hour, they might have gotten away with the $10 or so of Lira in my pocket. They were thin and pale, probably Albanian or something, not locals. (Someone had mentioned a problem there with illegal Albanian migrants).

Just stay aware, watch yourself in crowds, and wonder each time someone jostles you - especially if it seems uncalled for.

djkbooks

<<Just stay aware, watch yourself in crowds, and wonder each time someone jostles you - especially if it seems uncalled for.>>

Again, if that which is important to you is under your clothing, out of "reach" - literally - you won't have to worry about being "aware".

Actually, it's FAR better to conceal your valuables than attempt to "just stay aware". The pickpockets and petty thieves are far more practiced at grabbing your valuables than you'll ever be at "just staying aware".

elberko

I agree with djkbooks completely.

Dick

While walking near the Coliseum in Rome few years ago, we walked by 2 gypsy women.

One of them blatantly grabbed a camera bag that a friend had and tried to pull it away. He instictively reached out to grab the back back. While he was doing that, the other woman was starting to reach into his pocket. It turns out that it was his wallet that they really wanted...not the camera. Fortunatley, I stepped in, yelled, "NO!!" and pushed her away.

This happened within a couple of hundred yards of the Coliseum. At the coliseum was a sattelite police station.

Bootman4U

I was pickpocketed in Barcelona on the Metro. Do NOT assume that you are going to be "aware" of the action even when you are watchful because before you know it the deed has been done..these folks are VERY clever no matter how "aware" you think you are. The answer is leave all valuables except what you absolutely MUST have in the room/hotel safe..and make sure that passport photocopy is NEVER in the same place as the passport itself..defeats the whole purpose. Use a moneybelt to protect items/cards etc. you do take..THAT way they can jostle you all they want, goose you, pour mustard on your shirt, rub your legs, etc..all of these things are current methods and you don't have to sweat it or be "aware" of anything except enjoying yourself.

zootsi

In Rome, we witnessed an attempted pickpocketing on the sidewalk outside the Forum. two pre-teen girls tried to grab a young American man's wallet, but he stopped them. Aside from that, we found Rome to be as safe as any city we've been to. In Venice we found the African handbag sellers in some of the piazzas to be annoying, but Venice felt perfectly safe.