Parking and luggage safety

The common sense advice is to keep it out of sight. After that it is random or should I say, The luck of the Irish, if you get hit. I don't think big cities are any safer than small cities. Just park in well lit areas and try to make the car as uninviting as possible.

Francesco, Luggage is not entirely safe when parking anywhere in Italy, but there's probably a higher risk in larger cities. As Frank mentioned, it's a good idea to keep items out of sight. As I recall, rental agencies in Europe don't put identification on their cars (ie: Hertz stickers) for this reason. That way thieves can't easily identify vehicles as being a rental. If you haven't driven in Italy before, are you aware of the usual "caveats" (IDP's, ZTL areas)? If not, post another note for further information. Happy travels!

I've heard stories of rental cars having windows smashed for a GPS on the window - I thought I rem reading in one of the RS newsletters about how he would even leave the glove compartment open so potential thieves could see there was nothing in it - I'm sure I saw this on a RS thing somewhere...maybe one of the shows?

You pay your money and take your chances. Leaving the glove box open only shows there's nothing in there. I usually have luggage or junk in the back seat. Sometimes I screw up and forget to lock the car. Speaking only of GPS's, I've, stupidly, left the darn thing turned on all night hanging from the window in Dunkerque, Marseille, Barking, and Naples (that I can remember). All were in areas that most RS fans wouldn't think of even driving into - - and never had a problem. A year ago we were staying in a pretty snazzy resort in Portugal. We'd been there a week so all the stuff was up in the rooms except for a dumb hat. The gps was in the trunk. The car was in a locked and 'guarded' lot on the resort property. Somebody has thrown a landscape boulder through the window of three cars (mine was last in the row and I damn near got a hernia lifting it out). The hat was gone and they'd gone through the back seat into the trunk - - the gps was gone too. That was my only theft in maybe a quarter million miles of european driving. Go figure.