Rome is no different than any other large city when it comes to bums and beggars. A large gaggle of them stand outside of the main train station. They’ll ask for money. You can try to avoid them all you want, but they’ll start to follow you. Even after I said ,”no” many times, one grabbed my coat. I was able to twist away quickly after shouting, “NO!” There were many people around but it didn’t seem to faze these people.
I left my umbrella near the front door to my hostel and not 5 minutes later, it was stolen. Apparently, an umbrella is a hot commodity on a rainy day. And of course it just happened to be the first day of a Metro strike
I had a rain coat and decided to walk to the Spanish Steps in the rain since I didn’t have an umbrella anymore. About every block, there was a guy selling umbrellas. One right after another would ask, “’brella?” I think I probably passed 14 guys trying to sell me one. I think I lost it when the 15th one asked me because the look on his face after I told him off said more than words ever could have.
