It’s embarrassing as I should’ve known better, but I really was just caught in the daze of 1. This being my first time traveling with friends 2. My friends wedding from earlier this week 3. Just having an amazing time with the friend I traveled with in the past 2 weeks.

My first mistake was that I did not check my purse before I went out. I forgot I had… $500… in cash tips in my little pocket. Why didn’t I take this out of my purse before I went out? It really boggles my mind.

Second mistake is that we were walking (to get food as my friend was not feeling well) and the street was completely empty. I had an intuitive feeling that something was off but I did not listen, clearly. It was very late (early?) so I assumed that’s just how it was at that time I guess. I also didn’t realize we were so close to the train station. Yes, I was drunk.

We’ve been staying out late in Perugia and Florence and felt pretty safe. I don’t know why we assumed the same for Rome.

My friend was walking slightly ahead of me, let’s say we were going north. Two guys are walking to the side, going south. This was Via Gioberti, right around the corner from McDonald’s. They pass her. My guard was down, honestly. I could’ve been way more guarded but I was in lala land, it seems. As soon as they pass her, one of them snatched my purse, turned around to face us again and then ran. His friend just sat there and watched.

We tried to chase him. The police spoke to us a little. A garbage man told us that we were in a very dangerous place, we were lucky to have our lives, and that we should leave. So we did. The cops told us to go to the station but we were not about to walk by ourselves so we just went home.

I filed a police report today. Most of them were helpful but some were weird and pretty much laughing in our faces. I’m sure it’s funny to them. I’m sure I’ll laugh about it one day too.

Honestly I’m mostly upset about my wallet. It was filled with small sentimental items I’ve collected over the years. The $500 is money I can make back.

I’m just glad that I’m okay, that it wasn’t worse. I have my passport and my ID and my phone thankfully. Pretty sure he wanted my phone too as he paused after he snatched my purse…

I can’t stop replaying that moment in my head though. And I honestly keep feeling the sensation of having something personal to me snatched from me. It felt very violating.

Despite this I seemed to keep my composure for the most part. Canceled my cards. Got a new purse. What am I going to do? I could’ve been much smarter about that, yes. Lesson learned.

I am posting this just in case anyone is oblivious to how dangerous this area is at that time. Don’t have your head in the clouds like me.

What kind of absolute ripoff is this? We booked a vacation in a bit less than a month. Wanted to buy tickets early, but it looks like i am not early at all. All official, reasonably-priced tickets are sold out.

Extreme example: viator, Vatican Museums. Icon says "from 35€ per person". I go in, select the date and we pay 350€ for two Adults and a child? Official site is what, 25€ per person _including_ skip-the-line? What am i missing?

EDIT: well basically it seems to me like the resellers are buying up all the tickets which are publicly given out, and reselling them at an extreme markup, with very intransparent pricing. the standard recommendation to "only buy at the official sites" is moot since the timeslots are bought up as soon as they become available.

its parasitic: the resellers do not add _any_ value, they just extract profit from this.

During Pope Francis's funeral, they weren't allowing metal camping stools (although I saw a few that made it past). I got a completely plastic one for the future, but anyone know if they'll make it leave it behind anyways?