TravMimi

Just returned from 4 days in Rome. Thankfully I've been many times and got to experience it when it was the Rome tourists expected. IMO it's almost ruined for tourists. Illegal immigrant street peddlers are everywhere and have totally taken over some major tourist sites. Piazza Navona is ruined. They now not only have a street towel with their goods but carry them around and harrass people. As soon as you stop to look at tourist site, they push up against you from behind you. They follow you, shoot their toys right at you, actually shove their products into your hands and are very difficult to get rid of. I know the officials do nothing about it because these guys will then turn to violent crime, but if Rome wants to save it's tourist industry they had better think of something. The only saving grace is the comedy show they put on when they see cops coming. They all pick up their junk and run off like scattering roaches. Never thought I would miss the gypsies (which the peddlers have run off). Now I'm a tourist they have run off.

endlessummer

I have to agree with you. While I could deal with them most of the time, I was upset to see them spread out right at the entrance of the Pantheon. You forgot to mention the ones thrusting bunches of roses at women then demanding money from the men. Plainclothes police needed, I think.

ekscrunchy

Sounds really grim. And sad. I wonder where these guys go in the winter because we saw only a couple of them in January...I guess the markup on umbrellas is high enough to allow them to go back to Bangladesh or Benin for the season!

ira

It's not as if street peddlers haven't been around since Hector was a pup.

AnnMarie_C

"The only saving grace is the comedy show they put on when they see cops coming."

lol, I agree--we witnessed this dance in December at the Pantheon when the police showed up. Fortunately, the Christmas market was in full swing at Piazza Navona and I don't recall seeing them there.

Dukey

Sorry, but some of us have, for years, felt that places like the Navona were jammed with visitors and not all that appealing. In that regard, that particular place has been just the place we DID expect for some time and that's why we avoided it. Obviously, that is a matter of perspective and I thank you for posting yours.

Unfortunately, I think you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face if you let the conditions in some parts of the city prevent you from ever returning.

Graziella5b

I agree, I love Rome but have been terribly dissapointed in some areas, lovely areas in the past, now packed with tourists including me, and on top these other problems. What to say? Also we were robbed in Madrid by several guys I could swear were Roumanians.... the mobility of people without jobs from area to area in Europe is becoming a problem , I am sure.
I mentioned this before but in a small town in Castille, Tordesillas, I heard story after story of all kinds of robberies from these groups that have come to otherwise quiet and safe.
It is sad.

TravMimi

As I said in the original post I assume the Italian officials let these people do this to avoid them turning to robbing tourist at knifepoint as has happening in some other cities in Europe. I still feel physically safe in Rome, but now I have the same feeling as riding on the 64 bus. VERY uncomfortable!

sandi_travelnut

I noticed a lot of them in Venice as well, selling knock-off designer bags.

PalenQ

Poor folks trying to scrape out a living i think - some supplier probably gets most of money - so annoying yes but have a heart!

And if it rains in Rome be ready for an instance switch in merchandise and peddlers everywhere, everywhere thrust umbrellas at you to buy at the first drop.

tcreath

I love Rome but have to agree with you that the street peddlers can certainly ruin the ambience in some areas. I steer clear of the Trevi fountain for this reason. It has all the makings for a romantic, beautiful setting but its the street peddlers shoving roses in our faces and trying to get us to pay them to take a polaroid that totally ruins it for me.

That being said, I think Rome is a beautiful city and there are lots of great piazzas and locations in Rome where you can enjoy yourself without the street peddlers. You just need to be willing to get off the beaten tourist path to find them.

Tracy

TravMimi

Maybe all the "must sees" of Rome will just become the "must avoids", and Rome will be on the list of "off the beaten path" tours.

tcreath

And PalenQ, you do certainly have a point. I complain about the peddlers as much as anyone else but when we were walking near Santa Maria Maggiore and suddenly the skies opened and the rain came pouring down we were very happy to see street peddlers hocking cheap umbrellas!

Tracy

PalenQ

tcreath- i share your disgust at roses being thrust constantly at you at Trevi, etc. It is a bother and i wish there would be some controls on where peddlers could operate. Seems to be much more a problem in Rome than similar tourist cities in that peddlers are more aggressively hawking their wares.

Like when it rains, umbrellas being thrust at every umbrella-less folk

kelkel

OK, y'all...

I am heading to Rome next week on a Disney crise. I remember how annoyed I was in Egypt with the same kinda stuff. How did you handle this? Is there a phrase in Italian that I need to learn to make them understand no?

tomassocroccante

Before the big influx of peddlers, the Trevi square impressed me as being as romantic as an airport waiting area during bad weather: just too many tourists - from everywhere - perched on every available square inch, milling about, some happy, some bored, some annoyed, some annoying ...

There's a wonderful movie (not in US distribution yet, as far as I know) that I saw at a film festival, about a bropu of immigrant musicans that were formed into an orchestra by an Italian "maestro" of sorts. It all involves saving an old vaudeville theater near Termini station. Called "L'Orchetra di Piazza Vittorio", it's definitely worth waiting for. A bright spot in the picture, anyway. (By the way, the orchestra also includes an American and a couple of western Europeans, as well as a Cuban, South Americans, Africans and Indians.)

By the say, you can hear them perform in Rome, and even on a few tour dates in Tuscany this summer.

PalenQ

You need not say anything, just keep walking - they are not as aggressive as third-world types i have seen. Just omnipresent.

LeeParis

We were just in Rome at the end of May into early June. Many, many street peddlers. It was difficult in the line going into the Vatican Museum because you are a captive audience. They camped by the walls with their various wares. Many were selling handbags.

We were accosted once or twice by the rose sellers but I was very quick with a firm, "NO!" I knew the rose was not free!

It was my first time in Rome and I loved it but I agree the street peddlers were everywhere. Still, I want to return to Rome despite them.

I do remember them in Venice and Florence when there in 2001. Seems the handbag sales people in Venice were always bundling up their goods and running off as soon as a police officer showed up.

LeeParis

TravMimi

In our recent experience (last week) they were very aggressive. Especially in the crowed, well known tourist spots. What to say?...after being harrassed and followed by one certain one in Piazza Navona we said, "Go away! leave us alone!!" answer? In English, "It's a free country I go where I want"

tcreath

On our first visit to Rome, several years ago, I actually have a picture of me and DH sitting on the edge of the Trevi fountain and I'm holding...yes, a yellow rose. DH got so tired of this guy that he finally gave him a euro or two just to get rid of him.

I personally found the Trevi fountain romantic, but we were there in Februaray when there aren't nearly as many tourists.

Last time we were in Rome, last year, DH and I had a good laugh at what the peddlers were peddling in Piazza Navona....musical bubble makers that lit up with various shades of neon lights. A rose, I can see. An umbrella, definitely useful. But a musical light-up bubble maker?!

I do agree that they seem more persistent in Rome but if you ignore them or firmly say no they will eventually take the hint.

Tracy