How To Ruin a Beautiful Italian Destination Wedding
By Dr. Ted Baehr
If you look on your Internet for “Italian traffic scams”, you get dozens of entries about the latest Italian soak the tourists and ruin their vacation memories forever.
In the summer, we had a beautiful wedding in Verona. My wife’s family had come from Northern Italy, so we toured several areas and wrote several joyous Travelguide articles about the beauty that is Italy.
Six months later, we started getting traffic tickets that were never cited at the time and applied to obscure and difficult situations. The tickets provided that if we didn’t pay in five days, the price would almost double, that the money had to be wired at a cost of $35 a bank charge each and that there was no recourse to appeal these tickets. Having been a L.S. Attorney in the Securities Fraud Department of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, these tickets have the appearance of fraud.
What could have brought on these draconian devices of extracting money from tourists and travelers?
In one instance, the apartment where we were staying was inside the town. The person who owned the apartment said they would lead us into the city with their car, so that we would not get a ticket and so we could take out our bags, which were many since there were seven us traveling together, and then we would take our cars outside the city to park. Well, they were wrong about the ability to drive in on their pass, and the traffic bureau was malicious in charging for a short trip to unload lots of bags of 70-year-olds and grandchildren.
The next one was for the rehearsal dinner. The rain was pouring furiously. My wife has been on chemotherapy for 21 years. We drove to the restaurant and parked in a large parking lot for the restaurant. The younger people walked for almost an hour to get into the restaurant and were soaking wet when they got to the rehearsal dinner. Having been on chemo for 21 years, for a very severe auto immune condition, my wife could not afford to get soaking wet.
That said, who are you going to argue with six months later, when nobody on the phone speaks English, when there’s no way to argue your position, when the result of your noncompliance is a warrant for your arrest?
The only solution to the Italian tourist traffic scams is to stop visiting Italy even if your wife’s ancestors came from there. Maybe her ancestors made a smart move by leaving a country that would scam travelers in the first place!
In the summer, we had a beautiful wedding in Verona. My wife’s family had come from Northern Italy, so we toured several areas and wrote several joyous Travelguide articles about the beauty that is Italy.
Six months later, we started getting traffic tickets that were never cited at the time and applied to obscure and difficult situations. The tickets provided that if we didn’t pay in five days, the price would almost double, that the money had to be wired at a cost of $35 a bank charge each and that there was no recourse to appeal these tickets. Having been a L.S. Attorney in the Securities Fraud Department of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, these tickets have the appearance of fraud.
What could have brought on these draconian devices of extracting money from tourists and travelers?
In one instance, the apartment where we were staying was inside the town. The person who owned the apartment said they would lead us into the city with their car, so that we would not get a ticket and so we could take out our bags, which were many since there were seven us traveling together, and then we would take our cars outside the city to park. Well, they were wrong about the ability to drive in on their pass, and the traffic bureau was malicious in charging for a short trip to unload lots of bags of 70-year-olds and grandchildren.
The next one was for the rehearsal dinner. The rain was pouring furiously. My wife has been on chemotherapy for 21 years. We drove to the restaurant and parked in a large parking lot for the restaurant. The younger people walked for almost an hour to get into the restaurant and were soaking wet when they got to the rehearsal dinner. Having been on chemo for 21 years, for a very severe auto immune condition, my wife could not afford to get soaking wet.
That said, who are you going to argue with six months later, when nobody on the phone speaks English, when there’s no way to argue your position, when the result of your noncompliance is a warrant for your arrest?
The only solution to the Italian tourist traffic scams is to stop visiting Italy even if your wife’s ancestors came from there. Maybe her ancestors made a smart move by leaving a country that would scam travelers in the first place!
For more info on how to do a destination wedding in Italy, click here...
