Growing up we're told "Be careful -- don't talk to strangers." But sometimes going to Europe & throwing out this rule can be wonderfully rewarding. What's your story? One summer afternoon in Rome I was taking my time (it was Italy after all!) eating my lunch in a restaurant. My waiter asked if I wanted anything else because he was leaving. Not realizing the time I said, "Oh you're going?" and he said he'd be back at dinner & then he would be off at 10:30. He invited me to come back then to meet him for a drink. Now being a single female traveling alone, this was not the 1st time I had that kind of offer. I said I would come back and I really did. The guy seemed harmless and meeting the guy in the restaurant on Via Veneto didn't seem dangerous. Well I was a little late that night & the guy left but the bartender tracked him down on his cellular & he came back for me. I hung out with him & his friends that night around the fountain in Trastevere. I found out he was from Naples but currently working in Rome. The next day I was headed for Sorrento for a few days & then back to Rome for another day before flying home. When I was in Sorrento he called my hotel & said he would be going to visit his family in Naples & invited me over & said I could go back to Rome with him & his cousin. I accepted and met the family and we all drove back to Rome. We've been good friends ever since. I've seen him when I've been back in Italy and stayed with his family. Sometimes you never know who you're going to meet. The people you meet on trips are as important as the places. But is it just me and my life in the northeast or do these things just happen abroad but not in the US?

A girl asked me the way to the toilets <BR>at JFK back in 1987 and we've been friends ever since. She visited me in the US and I've been to see her many times in London and have spent weekends with her family. Sometimes you just need to trust your instincts.

A gentleman with a British accent approached our table as my wife and I were having dinner in a small hotel in Brittany. "We hear you speaking English," he said," and we are just dying to converse with anyone in the Mother Tongue." "Sure," I said, "if you can understand American." So he and his wife came over...and so began a friendship that now is 13 years old. They have visited us in our home in Arizona, and we have stayed with them in their home outside London. And their children and our children have come to know one another. Just because four lonely people met one evening a long way from home.

more kindness stories to the top

My 10 yr old was having a mini- meltdown in the bathropoms at Villa Borghese. <BR>A young college aged woman overheard her, and told her how hard she found these tours when she was my daughter's age. <BR>And what helped her was to draw some of the things she saw. <BR>(she is now in Art College) <BR>well, my daughter loves to draw also, so the woman gave her a handful of blank pages from her sketch pad, and a pencil. <BR>I thought that was very sweet.

I wouldn't have met my husband if i hadn't talked to a stranger <BR> <BR>we were both canadians traveling europe for the summer and started talking one night after dinner in greece....the rest is history <BR> <BR>JP

When in Crete a few years ago my friend and I hired scooters. Of course the inevitable happened I came off and badly cut myself. We were passed by a villager who proceded to go and get someone with a car. I was driven to the village hospital-on arrival someone went to get the local doctor who gave me the necessary stitches and treatment. They then served us hot tea (Yes the Greeks do this for shock-just like the English!!!) and let us rest for a while. How is that for medical attention?!!They didn't even expect payment on the day, they simply told me to return when I had the money required.