Avoid These 9 Tourist SCAMS In Italy!

Everyone wants their Italy trip to be amazing, and it should be. It's an incredible country, but with millions of tourists visiting every year, Italy also has tons of pickpockets and scams. My partner Naick and I, we've been to Italy about a dozen times, so in this video I'm going to walk you through nine scams to watch out for in Italy, so you don't waste your money or get your phone or passport stolen. Number one, the friendship bracelet scam. This is the most common tourist scam in all of Italy. You are guaranteed to come across it. A guy walks up, all smiles, holding a bunch of bracelets. You can hear him say, here, for you, it's a gift. But if you let him put it onto your wrist, or even just take the bracelet into your hand, he'll then flip the script on you and start demanding money. If someone offers you anything for free, just keep walking and say, no, it's okay, thank you. Next up, pickpockets in crowded places. Italy is very safe overall. Violent crime is rare, but pickpocketing, unfortunately, is everywhere. There's a lot of pickpockets around the Trevi Fountain, the metro in Rome, the Rialto Bridge in Venice, and one common tactic they use is to distract you. So someone might bump into you, or walk up to you, asking for directions, and meanwhile, their partner is stealing your wallet. It could be a young woman with a baby, a friendly teenager, or even a sweet-looking grandma. I'm going to give you a few easy tactics, and if you just apply those, you'll take the target right off your back. Never leave your phone on the table in a cafe or restaurant, especially if you're sitting right next to the street. If you're a guy, don't put your wallet in your back pocket, always keep it in the front. Or even better, just leave your wallet at the hotel, and split your cash and your credit cards between your front pockets. And ladies, zipper up your purse at all times, and keep it in front of your body, where you can see it. Even if the person approaching you looks like a police officer, because that can actually be a scam as well. I'll get into that one in a minute. The next scam to look out for is fake helpers at train stations. So you're at the ticket machine in a train station, someone swoops in, and he says, here let me help you with that. So he starts pushing the buttons for you on the screen, but then once your ticket gets printed, he turns around and asks for a tip. And sometimes they get a little bit pushy if you say no. They'll pretend to be staff, some even speak multiple languages, unless they're in uniform. Just default to saying, no thanks, I've got it. These machines are really easy to use. There's an English button, you don't need any help. This next one often catches people off guard. Restaurant ripoffs. You sit down at a restaurant, you have a nice meal, and then the bill comes, and it is way higher than you expected. Sometimes it's the trick with the double menu. One menu in Italian for the locals, and one menu in English for tourists, where the prices just happen to be a little bit higher. Or it's that they brought you water and bread without asking, and then afterwards they charge you for it. It can also be a little more sneaky than that, that they'll add things to your tab that you never even ordered. Don't worry too much. Most restaurants in Italy are great, and people are just trying to help you. But sometimes in touristy spots, there's gonna be people looking to take advantage of travelers. At a restaurant, always ask to see the menu in Italian as well. Just say you want to learn a little bit more Italian. Before you order, ask if certain things like bread or water cost extra. And when the bill comes, make sure to always thoroughly check it. Moving on to taxi scams. You get into a cab, and the driver doesn't turn on the meter. Or he quotes you a flat rate, which is way too high. Sometimes they also tack on additional fees, just because you're bringing big luggage. Or, this one's really awkward, you end your trip, you want to pay the driver in cash, and then he says, I don't have change for that, which forces you to overpay. This isn't always a scam. Good people can make honest mistakes. But either way, it kind of sucks. Only take licensed white taxis. They have an official number on the side, and a meter. If you're in bigger cities like Milan or Florence, there's this app called Freeway. It kind of works like Uber, but Uber is often a lot more expensive in Italy. Some cities like Rome have fixed rates for when you're taking a cab from the airport to get downtown. So just google Rome airport taxi rates before you get on your flight to Italy, because you don't want to get scammed straight off the plane. Money exchange and ATM traps. You're going to need cash when traveling in Italy. Do not go to one of those currency exchange booths. I know they're all over the city, but even the ones that say we charge no commission, use horrible exchange rates. Our rule of thumb used to be to only go to ATMs that are attached to real banks, because they're the very safest place you could possibly go. But those aren't really a thing anymore in the city centers. On our last trip to Italy, we just used ATMs in random plazas, or right next to a pharmacy or a store, and it was always totally fine. If it's located inside a souvenir shop, next to a major attraction like the Colosseum, that might be a little bit more dodgy, because they're probably not gonna give you the best rates. Next up, the fake police officer scam. Someone approaches you on the streets, they flash a badge, tell you they're with the police, and then they ask to see your wallet or your passport. Maybe they say that there's been a theft, or that there's counterfeit bills going around. A lot of people just go along with this, because it feels serious, and then they end up having their passport or their cash stolen. Real Italian police might do random ID checks in certain spots, like outside train stations, but they'll never ask to see your wallet or touch your cash. If you come into a situation like this, you can always say, okay sure, but let's go to the police station first. A real police officer is not going to mind, but a scammer will back off right away. Now there's a similar scam to this that's a little bit less intimidating, which is the petition scam. They ask you to sign a petition for a good cause, or make a small donation. Maybe it's totally legit, but sometimes what happens is that they just end up pocketing your donation, or it was just a distraction, and their accomplice is now pickpocketing you. The painting scam. You'll see this one in super crowded areas, like for example outside the academia in Florence, where people are lining up, hundreds of them, to get into the museum. You'll see cheap paintings lying in the middle of the sidewalk, right where people are walking. The first time I saw this, I was like, why on earth would you put paintings on the ground here? Like literally of all places. You don't want to step on one of these, because once you do, the seller is going to walk out and be all like, oh my god, you ruined it, and then you're on the hook to buy it. Most street artists in Italy are totally legit, but if it's lying on the ground in the middle of one of the most crowded places in all of the city, it's probably a setup. But not everything that feels shady in Italy necessarily is. Some stuff might feel like a scam, but it's not actually a scam. And you don't want to embarrass yourself calling someone a scammer, when they're actually not. So we're going to get into those situations right after the next tip. Fake accommodation listings. It might be one of the most sucky ones on the entire list. You find a cheap apartment online, the photos look amazing, but you book it, and then a few weeks later, when you show up in Italy, it turns out the address does not exist, or someone else is living there. Some of these scams have very real looking websites. They send confirmation emails. Everything looks and feels totally legit until it's too late. Always use trusted platforms if you're booking your accommodation. And just to be extra safe, only book listings that have plenty of positive reviews. But sometimes your scam radar is gonna go off, and there's actually nothing dodgy going on whatsoever. Some things just seem a weird or unfair to us as travelers, but it's just how things are in Italy. Paying extra to sit down at a cafe. Ah, Italian coffee, it is the best. But when you walk in and head to the counter to order, they will ask, al banco o al tavolo? At the bar? Or do you want to sit down? In Italy, the prices change based on where you drink your coffee. We've had a coffee sitting down at a table for four euros that would have cost just one euro if we'd had it at the bar. It's totally normal here. Number two, the coperto charge at restaurants. So you had a lovely meal, you check the bill, and you see a charge called coperto. And you go, I didn't order that. I didn't have any coperto. Well, a coperto is a fixed fee charge, typically around one to three euros per person that you pay just for sitting at the table. It covers stuff like tableware. It is not a scam. It's something that's been customary in Italy for centuries now. Tourist tax at hotels and Airbnbs. Even if you prepaid for your hotel or your Airbnb online, when you arrive to check in, they're probably going to ask you to make an extra payment in cash. Most cities in Italy have a daily tourist tax of just a few euros per person per day. And your host is legally required to collect it from you. Just make sure you get a receipt. Next is paying for water at restaurants. In Italy, water at restaurants isn't free. You won't get a glass of tap water like you might back home. Instead, they'll just ask you naturale or frizzante, still or sparkling, and then charge you for a bottle, which is usually around two to four euros. Getting your ID scanned. In Italy, if you buy a SIM card or certain types of train tickets, a vendor may ask to scan or see your passport. Now, I know that feels a little bit invasive, but they're legally required to do it for anti-fraud reasons. With everything you've learned, you're gonna have an amazing time in Italy. But if you want to make the most of it, what do you do when it comes to tipping? What behaviors might offend the locals? Go and check out our video on the don'ts of visiting Italy. It'll make your trip even better.