SO, alihutch, maybe you've been lucky. Or inobservant. Happily not everybody who goes to Europe gets pickpocketed. But some people do. And if you're jetlagged and sleepy, confused in a strange city in a foreign country among people speaking a foreign language, it's hard to be totally alert.

A few years ago on the first day of a trip to Rome (not my first), a guy on a Vespa went by me on a sidestreet, yelling "Bursa." He was reminding me to keep my purse on the side away from traffic. Having just arrived I wasn't quite yet awake and Rome-aware. So even the natives warn you about theft.

But there was little in my purse to steal. I always wear a money belt.

If you read ancient history, you would find that both Pompey and Julius Caesar complained of theft at Napoli and Pompei. Theft at Ostia was notorious. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose.

Franco, I ride a Vespa. Do you think that there’s a career opening for me in Napoli or would Ostia be a better bet?

Hmmm. In Ostia, you'd be the only one, nowadays, that's the USP. On the other hand, one alone is perhaps easier to catch...