Debbie pickpocked in Rome on the first day

We strolled along the Circus Maximus space this afternoon. 
Until I saw it I had no idea of the expanse of the space
 This is where the chariot races happened.
At the site, there were vendors selling contraptions for a selfie
I had my first Italian Gelato Grande vanillia

From here we checked into the hotel and headed out again to tour.
There seem to be thousands of tourists out there
everywhere and I did see Bernini's columns around St Peter's square and we saw several old bridges over the Tiber River and can 't wait to start walking

Before we headed out to the tourist site for the afternoon, we stopped at the Post Office.  Debbie had stuff to mail from a friend in Ottawa who gave her stuff to bring to Italy to mail to their family in Venice for the friend.  Debbie wanted to get the parcel out of the way and the weight out of her bag.

So we went off to the post office around the corner before we left the hotel area.  We mailed the parcel. and headed off to tour..  About three minutes later, we stopped at a fountain and Debbie reached for her money belt to put it back on.  She had taken out the money belt in the Post Office to pay for the parcel and it put into the outside pocket of her knapsack on her shoulder thinking to get it organized put her passport back into the belt and on her at the next stop.  This was the fountain we stopped at about three minutes away.  The money belt was gone from her knapsack.  We walked the block about four times, looked in garbage cans and went back to the Post Office.  No money belt was found.  We looked everywhere and we concluded that she was pick pocketed.  I was walking beside Deb or  in front of her walking with her for that block we walked before we discovered there was no money belt.  Someone must have been watching at the post office is what Debbie figures and saw the money belt (she took it out to pay the postage) and then phoned a buddy outside and we would be passing us..  There were men sitting there waiting around in the post office and their number was never called, so it must be system or something.  We talked to a vendor at the corner where it was a tight fit to get by and we had to go around people.  He was Bengali and Debbie spoke to him in Bengali and he said it was a dangerous place.  Debbie lost over 200 Euros, her Social Insurance Card, her Canadian Citizenship Card, her two credit cards, her debit card, her health card and extra health insurance cards and her aeroplan card.  That was the end of the touring for us.  It took hours for Debbie to cancel the credit cards and she could not do the SEars credit card at all - she sent an email.  for that one.  Then to the Police Station, we just came back from there tonight to make a report and maybe if the cards are found to get back her ID cards at least.   The only good thing and it is a big plus, her passport was in another zippered section of the backpack so that is all Debbie has now to leave. 

We were warned about wearing backpacks on our packs.  Neither of us noticed anything or anyone close to us as we walked.  It was like a ghost was around and took it.  It was so fast.  So it was a damper to start the trip that way to say the least.  Both of us have been in really bad places and were fine, and never thought it this was a place that was bad, but we were warned.

 We did have a lovely supper with two different kinds of wines and Italian ice cream for dessert with the group and that picked up our spirits.  Then we went on to the Police Station to finish off the report stuff.

So that was our unfortunate news today. 



Barb