My wife and I (ages 72 and 74) spent April in Italy. It was a wonderful trip (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome and Sorrento), but it was marred by various scammers and neer-do-wells. We have visited 13 different European countries over the past decade and never experienced such interactions. In Milan, there were three separate attempts to pickpocket us in the metro. The one that did succeed was my fault when I was not paying attention and left my anti-theft button and zipper on my shirt pocket open. Don't know what I was thinking. After departing the car, I knew I had lost my wallet. My wife immediately got on the different organizations' apps and reported my two credit cards and bank debit card stolen and canceled them. Within 30 minutes, the notifications began. Several attempts totaling several thousand euros were made. None were successful, thanks to my wife's quick action and the different anti-fraud departments at the bank and credit card companies. We continued on our journey with me feeling a little more stupid that I did a few days earlier. My wife had a couple of credit cards and a bank card, all with different numbers so we did not have any issues moving forward. Until.... we arrived in Ercolano for a couple of nights. We needed a bit of cash. My wife, with a banking background, always uses bank ATMs when withdrawing cash. We use cash for small purchases and maybe a tip here and there. We located a bank near the Herculaneum ruins and withdrew some cash. Four days later, my wife received a call from the bank's anti-fraud department. About 15 transactions were made using the bank debit card number in Indonesia totaling about $600. Since my wife had only used the card twice previously and that was a couple weeks before, the anti-fraud department surmised a skimmer had been placed on the ATM in Ercolano. We filed a fraud report and canceled the card. We had never heard or read about skimmers on bank ATMs in Europe. That was a surprise to us.
When all was said and done, we were made whole by the bank and the two financial misadventures cost us nothing but the inconvenience of getting new cards and in my instance a new driver's license when we returned home, a bit wiser. Pickpockets seem to be everywhere in Europe. At check-in at our Rome hotel, the clerk warned us right away about the danger and said he was a victim just a few days earlier. He called them "magicians." They even post "watch out for pickpockets" signs on the trails in Iceland. (We stopped off there on our way home.)
Just one other note: In many countries we have been approached by people selling trinkets, etc. table to table at cafes etc., but Italy stood out because the sellers were more aggressive than others we have encountered in the past. Several times, my wife had to forcefully say "No" before they moved on. Wave of the hand or ignoring them didn't work.
Despite these issues, we loved Italy and we hope to return in the future. If we don't, we still will have lifetime memories of our April 2026 trip to one of the most enchanting countries on earth.