“White, black, brown, we are all brothers and sisters!” He said, attempting to hand me a bracelet of cheap leather and plastic. “We are friends and friends help friends. My family back home, they are starving…”
This gross mockery of friendship greeted me as I approached the Roman Forum. A man with a charming smile, a bracelet and a sob story had tried guilt me into giving him some money.
He was but one among many I encountered in Rome. The city is flooded with various con artists and grifters seeking to prey upon the naïve tourist that wanders into their hunting grounds. While I was warned of these scams ahead of time, the sheer templated nature of the practice stood out to me as bizarre.
Bracelet scams, high markup water, and flamboyant “street artists” all operated almost identically to one another. It was almost as if they all worked for a similar employer and operated off a set “script” regardless of where they were in the city.
To counter these predators is a simple task yet may be daunting for many Canadian tourists. If someone approaches you on the streets of Rome, and they do not look like a fellow tourist, put on a stone face and walk past them as if they don’t exist.
It may seem harsh. It may seem impolite. However, putting these people out of mind will allow one to “drown out the background noise” and experience the truly stunning and historic sights of Rome.
Andrew's Global Storyteller Blog 