I was going through some photos from my trip to Italy a few summers ago, and it reminded me of one of my most awkward travel moments. Sometimes when abroad, you already feel as though you’re sticking out like a sore thumb. This was worse–I found myself as the center of attention in a busy square in Italy.
Let me preface this story by saying that my Nikon digital SLR is my baby. I guard it preciously when traveling, not just because I don’t want to lose the expensive camera, but because I also don’t want to lose the memory card in case I haven’t had the chance to back it up yet.
My sister and I were in Florence, on our way to the famed Uffizi Gallery. We entered Piazza de Signoria, an enormous square with a replica statue of David and plenty of tourists. I had heard many stories about sneaky thieves, so my camera strap was hanging on my left shoulder, and I was gripping it with my left hand on the front (sort of like a purse).
We were getting close to the Uffizi when all of the sudden, I felt the camera strap being yanked violently away from me. Oh HELL no! I hadn’t been a victim of theft in Italy yet, and I was not going to let it happen now.
I held onto that camera strap for dear life, resolved to prevent a thief from taking my beloved camera. All of the sudden, I felt myself falling, and I found myself on the ground tangled up in a bicycle that was now horizontal on the ground. The Italian man who had been riding the bike was cursing, and his baby, strapped to the bike in a little chair, was crying. What just happened?
I quickly realized that it wasn’t a thief grabbing my camera from behind. An Italian man was riding his bike with his baby on the back, and because the square was crowded, he biked really closely to pedestrians. He started to pass by me so closely that his right bicycle handle caught on my camera strap from behind me. I held onto the strap with such an iron grip that the bike toppled over and took me down with it.
My leg burned in pain. People gathered around, trying to see what the commotion was all about. I was dazed. A nice British tourist came over and picked me up. He got me to my feet and made sure I was OK. The Italian man cursed and yelled at me as he unstrapped his wailing baby (she was fine, just freaked out). I didn’t remember any of my Italian from college, so I couldn’t communicate to tell him that it was not I who viciously took his bike down, but he who rode too close to me and knocked me over.
It was so embarrassing. People gave dirty looks. Here I was, an American tourist who couldn’t remember her Italian, making a scene in the middle of a busy square, in a situation that looked like I was a horrible person who knocked over a baby. Finally, the crowd started to dissipate. I realized that nobody was really injured, and it was doing no good to stand there as the Italian man ranted at me, so we walked away.
As we got closer to the Uffizi, my leg still hurt. I lifted up my jeans and saw that I had two bad scratches, one huge. It was hardly even bleeding–just badly scraped and tender. The pic to the left of them is a few days later, once they started to heal. I had a scar from that big one for months.
Looking back, had I let go of the camera, it would have flown off my shoulder and landed on the stone ground, undoubtedly damaging or ruining it. I feel bad that I knocked over a baby, but I’m happy I saved my camera.
It’s so awkward being the center of attention in a situation like that, especially when you are abroad and can’t communicate with the locals. Have you ever had an incident while traveling that caused a commotion?
