I recently traveled 9 days through Italy, top to bottom, and visited some of Italy’s bigger cities. I went to Rome, Florence, Napels and Pompeii. These are all highly touristic places, and, unfortunately, where there’s tourists, there’s scams. If you’re traveling to Italy this summer, keep an eye out for these tourist scams!
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Tourist scams in Italy
Pickpockets
By now we all have heard about the ‘Attenzione, pickpocket!’ lady on TikTok. An Italian woman, living in Venice, follows pickpockets around the city and warns unsuspecting tourists of the thieves.
This is obviously not just an Italian problem, but it happens in all touristic places all over the world.
But there is one thing that made the Italian pickpockets so much more interesting than the others. If you look at the TikTok video’s, it’s mostly pregnant women who do the stealing.
Why? Is it because they need it for their kids? Is it to gain sympathy for when they get caught?
Nope, turns out pregnant women can’t be arrested in Italy, not even when they are caught red handed. Absolutely wild.
This is probably why these fed up Italian citizens have taken it upon themselves to warn tourists of these thieves.
Keep an eye on your stuff at all times. Put your valuables in closed pockets or under your clothes, keep a lock on your bag and beware of people trying to distract you.
“Free” bracelet
Free things are rarely ever free.
I’ve seen this scam happen right before my eyes. A young couple just walking around when they were stopped by a guy. He told the girl the bracelet was free and put it on her wrist. He got one too.
The couple thanked him and tried to walk away, but he stopped them again and asked for a donation, because he was so nice to give them something, they should be willing to give him something too, right?
The couple shook their heads and took the bracelets off. They were lucky they were still able to do this, because usually they tighten the bracelets so that you can’t take them off, so you HAVE to pay them.
I’ve seen other scammers putting the bracelets on the victim’s shoulder or just ‘kind of’ putting it in their hands so the victim will have to catch it. Basically anything so they can try to manipulate you into taking the bracelet, so they can ask you for money next.
So when someone comes up to you and tries to give you something for free, assume it’s not free.
Paintings on the floor
Be careful where you put your feet when walking through crowded area’s in Italy!
Scammers purposefully put their paintings on the floor where there are a lot of people. Not to sell them (you can still buy them, but that’s not how they make their money), but to make you accidentally step on them.
As soon as they notice an unsuspecting tourist step on one of their paintings, they will angrily chase the tourist and make them buy their ‘ruined’ painting.
I even saw another scammer pretending to step on one of the paintings as a joke.
If this happens to you, tell them you are only willing to pay with a police officer next to you, or simply run away.
Washing your car window
If you’re planning on driving through/to Italy’s cities, prepare for people coming up to your car at traffic lights. They will try to clean your window and demand money.
Ofcourse you can just decide to drive away if they still try when you say no, but they often try to damage your car while driving away!
Just telling them no often doesn’t do the trick, but I learnt a pretty good way to tell them to bugg off without actually saying it: use your window wipers! A guy next to us did this and it was so genius!
They will definitely leave you alone when you do this.
Fake painters
Italy’s cities are full of ‘painters’ trying to sell you adorable paintings of the city. They often pretend to work on a new piece when you walk by, so they can ‘show’ you they are real artists.
But in reality, I only saw the ‘painters’ prepare to ‘paint’ the next art piece.
Kind of suspicious that all these painters paint the exact same pictures, don’t you think?
That’s because, you guessed it, they are not hand painted. They were printed.
If you still want to buy one of these prints, just be aware they are trying to charge you way more than the print is actually worth. It’s likely it wasn’t hand painted and 10 others bought the same print as you that day.
Gelato
This might be the worst scam of all if you ask me. No messing with food on my watch!
Italy is known for their gelato, and if you’ve ever been to Italy, you know about those ‘gelato’ shops with hundreds of big mounts of colorful gelato. They look amazing, but you’re literally paying for air.
No one travels all the way to Italy to not get the best gelato of their life!
I wrote an in depth article on what to look for when looking for your refreshing summer treat, so you never have to buy anything less than the best!
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There are many more ways people try to scam tourists, but these were the ones I have encountered myself. But at least you won’t fall for these tourist scams in Italy ever again! Eliminating scammers one article at a time.
Did you ever fall for one of these scams?
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