Since Rome is incredibly popular as a tourist destination, a great deal of pickpocketing and bag or purse snatching takes place, especially in crowded locations, and pickpocketers in Rome can get pretty crafty. A 2010 study found that Rome was second only to Barcelona for pickpocketing of tourists.
As a rule, you should pretty much never carry anything very valuable in any outside pocket, especially the front pocket of your pants is one of the easiest and most common targets. Keeping your wallet in your front pocket or in your bag is far from safe. You should consider using a money belt and carry only the cash for the day in your pocket.
Also, beware of thieves--one popular technique that they use is to ride by you on a moped, slice the strap of a handbag with a knife, and ride off. They might also try to cut the bottom of your bag open and pick your wallet from the ground. Others will use the old trick of one person trying to distract you (asking for a cigarette or doing a strange dance) while another thief picks your pockets from behind. Bands of Gypsy kids will sometimes crowd you and reach for your pockets under the cover of newspapers or cardboard sheets. It is generally a good idea to be extremely wary of any strange person who gets too close to you, even in a crowd. If someone is in your personal space, shove the person away. As one frequent traveller put it, "Don't be afraid to be a dick in Rome." It is better to be rude than to to be stolen from.
Termini (the main railway station), Esquilino, bus line 64 (Termini to San Pietro), and the Trevi fountain are well-known for pickpockets, so take extra care in these areas. On the Metro especially, pickpockets are extremely skilled.
Remember that hotel rooms are not safe places for valuables; if your room has no safe, give your valuables to the hotel staff for safekeeping. Even if it does have a safe, hotels normally warn that they have no liability unless items are deposited in the main safe.
Be aware of the danger and take the usual precautions and you should be all right.
One of the recent techniques is that two ladies, one of them carrying a baby in Kangaroo Carry style, trying to block your way when entering a metro train, which may appear little unexpected/unintentional. When you try to give her way/make your way using the sling as disguise and tries to remove the zip of the waist pouch and pick the money or valuable from it. So be very careful in metro trains.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Rome
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Rome - updated Apr 2024
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Rome Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
