Blog Post from Our Italy Contributor:
Alex Roe ItalyChronicles.com
First of all, Italy is generally a safe country to travel in. However the unwary can end up with problems. The biggest of these problems are those of petty theft and the cloning of ATM and credit cards.
To be honest and as correctly pointed out by Italian Italy Chronicles reader Marco in a comment below, the problems travellers may face in Italy are very similar to the kinds of problems facing tourists in London, Washington and any other major tourist destinations. If anything, Italy is safer than many other countries around the world. The chances, for example, of inadvertently wandering into gang land in Italy are virtually zero.
Murder and rape are uncommon crimes in Italy, and Italy comes 47th in the world in terms of murders per 1000 people – this is a third of the murder rate in the USA. And don’t worry about getting caught up in the middle of a mafia war!
As the holiday season is just about upon us, here are some travel safety tips to help ensure your trip to Italy remains as pleasant as you expect and that unexpected surprises are kept to a minimum.
While these travel safety tips apply to Italy, they may well help anyone travelling in any unfamiliar land – not just Italy.
That old adage, “better safe than sorry”, really does count. And prevention is always better than cure, to coin another cliché. Call it “risk management”, if you will.
Especially valuable items like top of the range digital SLR cameras and equipment may require separate insurance.
While not exactly travel safety, you will also find some information on high fines which tourists in Italy can receive if they do innocent seeming little things like wearing bikinis, building sandcastles and buying handbags from the friendly, if annoying, beach-roaming salesmen.
Handbags
Women are more susceptible to theft than men owing to the fact that many carry handbags.
Women’s handbags are amazing things. Some are a large a sacks and the contents can be extremely diverse! The weight of these portable life-containers can be such that it’s surprising that their carriers do not walk with a lurch.
Anyway, handbags are a favourite target of thieves in Italy. Unsavoury types will either rifle through a handbag while you are distracted, or will simply take the whole bag.
Choose Your Bag Wisely
Right ladies, I’m about to give you a great excuse for going out and shopping for a new handbag for your trip to Italy!
The choice of handbag can make a difference. Aside from shoulder straps – which are a must-have, try to take a bag with inner compartments which have zips – and keep money, documents and other vacation essentials like mobile phones and cameras zipped in these inner pockets.
Bags with zippers are a better idea for travellers than handbags with clasp fastening systems as unzipping a bag is more difficult than undoing one of those convenient (for thieves!) magnetic clasps. Yes, a difficult to open bag may be a pain to use, but it will also be a pain in the neck for thieves too, who will pick on some other lady – probably someone with a clasp-closed bag. Thieves are very well informed on such things and may be tempted to change target if they realise that the bag in question is not going to be easy to open.
Of course, keep all bags closed at all times – make a habit of closing your bag immediately after opening it – ladies who leave their bags open are easy meat for dishonest types.
Shoulder Straps
Ladies should have bags with shoulder straps, and should make sure they do not walk with their bags facing the street side. And keep your hand over your bag, like Italian ladies do, for added security.
In the enticing, narrow and atmospheric side streets of Naples and Palermo, scooter mounted thieves will ride by (even in Italy’s northern cities, scooter thieves prowl), and may cut the shoulder-strap with a knife before whizzing off into the distance.
A big Handbag with a Shoulder Strap
If possible, carry credit cards, money and other documents on your person, so if you do become ‘separated’ from your handbag, you’ll still be able to get by.
Wallets, Gentlemen
Men usually keep them in their pockets, which, of course, is common knowledge to the world’s pickpockets.
In crowded areas – read most of Italy’s tourist honey pots – wallets carried in back pockets make an attractive target for thieves.
To reduce the risk, don’t carry a wallet, or if you do, carry it in a marsupial type bag which should be mounted under your tummy.
Alternatively, carry cash in your front trouser pockets (banknote clips are a good idea) and keep credit cards in one of those slim transparent plastic cases in the same place. Just watch out you don’t dislodge those banknotes when you pull out your hanky to mop that sweaty brow!
These tips should help you avoid unnecessary loses ...... Read More
Disclosure: The above publication is a contribution to Shesdaily.com of Alex Roe editor of ItalyChronicles.com. Image source: ItalyChronicles.com
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