I had just got on the bus from the train station in Perugia, Umbria when a non-Italian couple sandwiched me in the narrow space between the seats and the ticket punching machine. As I was trying to punch my ticket the man was going in my front pocket and the woman in my back pocket.(They had pushed theirselves up against me. All the while he was yelling and screaming at her as if he were mad at her. Of course this was done as a distraction. Very effective I might add. I quickly put my hands over my both pockets and luckly my back pocket with my wallet was buttoned. It all happened so quick I really didn't have time to think. The man immediately got off the bus all the while yelling at his girlfriend. She sat down for a few seconds and then got off the bus. I have to admit I was somewhat in shock. Had lived in Italy years and years ago and never had any problelms.

At any rate I got off the bus and talked to the bus driver who was off the bus waiting for the bus to fill up. Told him what had happened thinking maybe he would call the police but all he said was something like oh, yes, you have to be very carefuly when riding on the bus ect. etc.

Italy use to be a country that exported people as when I lived there years and years ago. Now Italy has become a country where immigrants go. Many of these immigrant to Italy are apparently criminal types. Not saying they all are. The other thing is the Italian government I've been told provides no social services for these immigrants.

Albanians in Italy seemed to really have a bad reputation among Italians. I met many nice Albanian people men and women while in Italy this past summer. However that couple in the train station that tried to rob me were probably Albanian.

While in all train stations in Italy especially the big ones be on guard. Carry your wallet some place safe. Use a money belt etc. etc. Try not to travel alone. You watch your partners back while he watches yours. Watch out when talking to strangers in train stations and other public places. Use common sence on this. Not saying don't talk to people at all. (Talking and learning Italian is why I go to Italy.)

Some useful phrases in cases like this:

1. Quello e un ladro! That one is a thief!

2. Mi ha rubato... il mio passaporto, il portafoglio, la borsa

3. Aiuto polizia!

4. Mi lasci in pace! Leave me alone

5. Fermate quel ragazzo! Stop that guy! E un ladro! He's a thief!

6. Questa persona mi sta disturbando. This person is annoying me.

7. Vada via! Get out of here!

8. Puo aiutarmi, per favore? Can you help me?

Somethings they might say:

1. Non ho fatto niente. I haven't done anything.

2. E una bugia! It's a lie!

3. Non e vero! It's not true!

4. Sono innocente. I'm innocent.

5. Voglio un avvocato. I want a lawyer.

A proposito,(by the way)the train station in Perugia is relatively small(Perugia's populaton about 160,000)but sure has a lot of questionable sinister characters hanging around. So just imagine in the big cities of Rome, Florence, Venice etc. etc. However while travling in Italy this summer just about all the train stations seemed to have these low life types hanging around. As an example of what train stations are like just go to the main train station in Los Angeles, California. It has those same type of people hanging around it!

Well, a piece of advise :

The police station of rome n countryside do not speak or write english. So if u lost $, can forget going in to policestation to waste yr time trying to explain to them. If u need a lost report document for insurance or other purpose, the report will be in italian version. If u need in english version, be prepare to write it yrself.

There is a problem here too with "undesirables" hanging around the station (the waiting room was locked last time we went there, presumably as a result) - and the population in winter here is only about 3,600! Most seem to be Eastern European, as are the beggars who accost you in the supermarket car park - a real shame. How do these people get in to Italy? I've found it difficult, even with an Italian wife and a house here!

Found this. Very interesting.

Italy, a nation of 63 million people at the latest count, has a disproportionately small number of immigrants, despite the press about everyone wanting to living in the "sun".
The majority of these immigrants (the legal ones) are retired and wealthy, and really do not integrate much.There are clandestines who embark on boats from Africa and who use Italy as a migration route further north.
The reason for this is if you need to support your self by working, this can prove relatively difficult, one because of the language problem, but two because Italy has Job protection laws, and what is more, a culture of protection that excludes foreigners from the job market.
If you want to know more about how to get a permesso or permission to stay, in Italy, a torturous process, even if you are an EU citizen, I suggest you go to the blog www.italyexpat.blogspot.com and read the post on permesso.

Italy is a nation situated in southern Europe consisting of the peninsula of Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and many other smaller islands. It was inhabited in ancient times by Italic tribes, Etruscans as well as Greek colonists. The non-Romans were slowly replaced as the power of Rome increased from the fourth century B C onwards. After the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and his downfall after the Second World War, Italy was reincorporated as a republic in the year 1946.

The provisional citizenship law of Italy permits immigrants to apply only after 10 years of living in the country. The law is also consisted of prerequisites that are not easy to fulfil. The net migration rate of Italy is about 2.07 migrants for every 1000 of the population. In 2002, the population of Italy was around fifty-seven million, out of which the immigrant number goes up to around 1,50,000, and the number is increasing every year.

So many ilegal people in Italy have to steal because they aren't allowed to work?!

Whilst killing time on the Eurostar I read an interesting article about Italy. “Life in Italy is so pleasant it becomes narcotic,” it said. Obviously there is some truism in this. I did a bit of digging around to find out and found some data on criminal activities as issued by the Direzione Centrale della Polizia Criminale. The numbers are split into regional and provincial.

The police use six main criminal activities that affect citizens most as their key indicators. They are:

Homicides
Pick-pocketing
General theft
House burglaries
Bank robberies

Armed robberies


Crime exists wherever you go and although the data shows a level of dispersion across each region, some southern provinces experience lower levels of criminal activity than the north. For example, you are less likely to have your bag snatched in Cagliari than in Milan.

On the down side, southern Italy seems to have by far, the highest number of house burglaries, armed robberies and general theft when compared to northern and central Italy.

When you aggregate the numbers, Central Italy is still statistically the best place to live if you want to avoid becoming a victim of crime, although the highest levels of criminal activity here occurs in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany with Bologna and Florence being the main problem areas.

As with any statistics, what these figures reveal are suggestive, but more importantly, what they conceal is, I believe, of greater importance. The data is out of date, but the point is I’ve yet been to anywhere else in the world (a visit to http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/eur_pc.htm will highlight various scams and warnings around the world) that is completely free of problems of this kind.

__________________
CJ
Magical Marche &
Luchetti & Partners Studio Legale Tributario