People Watching

Yesterday, I walked toward the Duomo behind two American women who were chatting loudly, wheeling luggage behind them and obviously using a phone as a GPS. I identified them immediately as tourists, and so did a guy on the street “selling” bracelets.

In Florence, the closer you get to the Duomo, the more tourist traps you find. The men that trapped these women don’t have a shop or a small cart selling souvenirs but rather walk up to people and try and “give” them a bracelet. Instead of continuing to walk away from this man, one of the women stopped. The man tried to talk to her about a bracelet that he was selling. Because these men target tourists, they speak in English, knowing it makes their sales pitches harder to ignore. She polietly said no thank you and started to inch away. Instead of completely turning around, ignoring the rest of what he was saying and leaving, she continued to listen to this man ramble. He ended up grabbing her arm and putting the bracelet on her. He was going on and on about how beautiful the bracelet was and how good it looked on her. She struggled to get it off but once she did, her friend grabbed her arm and pulled her away. As they walked off, I followed them. The woman who did not stop for the man said something along the lines of “you’re not supposed to stop and be nice to these people. They are going to scam you. They put the bracelets on tight so you struggle to get them off, making it necessary for you to pay them.” The other woman laughed it off and they continued down the road.

The lesson learned from observing these two women is that you should always be aware of your surroundings and that if you act like a tourist, you will be targeted as one.