These people aren't ex-addicts. They are Roma scam artists.

I know because I got one to confess to me in when I was in Rome in 2009.

They don't pick your pocket. They ask for a donation after you sign the petition.

In Rome they usually stand outside Castel San' Angelo or the Pantheon.

In Venice they stand between the Accademia Bridge and Campo San Stefano.

Thin

Instead of getting mad at them just start to cry. Really sob. They have no idea what to do.

I had one of these in a Boston shop a few years back, they wanted me to sign for this guy G Bush to be president. I declined

~2004 they were asking for signatures for AIDS either for a UN/WHO petition, research, prevention, patient care or something related.

The following year the same set-up in the same location (outside the Colosseum Metro Station) but now for drugs.

Another scam in Rome: a man in a little car stops you by the Colosseum and asks for directions. He speaks English.

After some polite conversation he reveals he is a leather coat salesman. Because he likes you he offers to sell you a coat at cost. He just happens to have some "samples" in his backseat.

RUN! If you encounter him.

Thin

We got caught by the leather coat scam in Rome. Bought a pair of leather coats for only 40 euros. Surely a bargain.

The coats proved to have been made from the skins of polyvinyl chlorides, apparently tanned and sewn up in China.

We can still laugh about it. I think it was Mark Twain who said

" Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant kind, but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread that's got sand in it."

That sort of laugh.

Our real estate agent was telling us about his honeymoon in Italy - his wife bought the nicest leather coats from a wholesaler that they happened to meet at... The guy had them in the trunk of his car...Such a good deal, and of course his wife really knows her merchandise - these coats were really nice...this guy couldn't have even known what he had because she got them for a steal...

I didn't have the heart to tell him that his wife got them for a steal because they were either fakes or stolen themselves. Oh well.

<i>The coats proved to have been made from the skins of polyvinyl chlorides, apparently tanned and sewn up in China.</i>


At least it saved the naugas.