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Things that there are too many of in Italy:
1) Banks
2) Police Forces
3) Police
I mean, I kind of knew that there were a number of separate banks in Italy, but I hadn't realized quite how many. Fortunately one of them is BNL, now a subsidiary if BNP. In theory that means that my Citibank dollar card will work. Not that I have tested it yet and not that I actually need any Euros.
Police Forces. At least two that I see quite frequently (Carabinieri, Poizia Statale), and a third (Vigli Urbani) that crops up every so often.
Police: All this talk in the UK of "more bobbies on the beat" seems to go down well with the masses, but would they like it if they got it? The ground seems to be crawling with police in Rome, but it doesn't seem to reduce the crime level, which is reportedly higher than it is in London. Not that I've seen evidence of either, which makes one wonder whether some of it might be fund-support justification from the police, rather than a real and present danger.
That said, the Italians seem seriously security conscious. This (fourth floor!) flat has iron grills for the balcony door and windows. The front door closes with a four-turn quadruple dead-bolt lock, and this kind of key appears to be standard. You wouldn't be picking one of these locks in a hurry, I can tell you. I was also warned to watch out for pickpockets etc etc, and a friend of mine did get his bag snatched from a restaurant table while it was in his line of sight which to be honest I found so imprtessive a concept that I felt like trying it out at a cafe in central Rome, leaving an empty bag on a table just to see if I could spot how they did it.
I nearly killed a dog the night before last when a middle-aged woman let it run in front of me while my attention was on the numbers on various bus stops. She grabbed my arm to stop me, and I immediately went into "stop pickpocket" mode rather than worry about the dog. But, no, she was a genuine middle-aged lady with a genuinely suicidal little dog.
So I guess that city training does me some good, in that I automatically think the worst of people in these situations. Shoot first and ask questions later.
( more gibbering, more pictures )
1) Banks
2) Police Forces
3) Police
I mean, I kind of knew that there were a number of separate banks in Italy, but I hadn't realized quite how many. Fortunately one of them is BNL, now a subsidiary if BNP. In theory that means that my Citibank dollar card will work. Not that I have tested it yet and not that I actually need any Euros.
Police Forces. At least two that I see quite frequently (Carabinieri, Poizia Statale), and a third (Vigli Urbani) that crops up every so often.
Police: All this talk in the UK of "more bobbies on the beat" seems to go down well with the masses, but would they like it if they got it? The ground seems to be crawling with police in Rome, but it doesn't seem to reduce the crime level, which is reportedly higher than it is in London. Not that I've seen evidence of either, which makes one wonder whether some of it might be fund-support justification from the police, rather than a real and present danger.
That said, the Italians seem seriously security conscious. This (fourth floor!) flat has iron grills for the balcony door and windows. The front door closes with a four-turn quadruple dead-bolt lock, and this kind of key appears to be standard. You wouldn't be picking one of these locks in a hurry, I can tell you. I was also warned to watch out for pickpockets etc etc, and a friend of mine did get his bag snatched from a restaurant table while it was in his line of sight which to be honest I found so imprtessive a concept that I felt like trying it out at a cafe in central Rome, leaving an empty bag on a table just to see if I could spot how they did it.
I nearly killed a dog the night before last when a middle-aged woman let it run in front of me while my attention was on the numbers on various bus stops. She grabbed my arm to stop me, and I immediately went into "stop pickpocket" mode rather than worry about the dog. But, no, she was a genuine middle-aged lady with a genuinely suicidal little dog.
So I guess that city training does me some good, in that I automatically think the worst of people in these situations. Shoot first and ask questions later.
( more gibbering, more pictures )
