Crossing countries border without passport

and how to avoid scammer in touristy places

I know these past few weeks have been super hard for all of us, especially Italians. Their country has been put on lockdown that means no one allowed to go out unless it is for essential need, like groceries, etc. My thought and pray are for them who battle this invisible common enemy for all of us. We will all get past this soon.

But on the other hand, we should not let this stop us from dreaming and wishing for a great future! So, I will tell you about the beauty of Rome and another walking tour.

Waking up on our second morning in Rome, I set up a time to meet my friend who worked in Rome. Before going to see her, we decided to go to the Vatican. We took the metro to get to Battistini Station then walked for 1,6 km to get to Vatican City.

Vatican City is known as a religious and touristy place in Rome, well technically it is a country inside Rome inside Italy. It is ok if you are confused, I was confused as well. So basically if you are in the Vatican, you are in different country and you don’t need passport to get a stamp when you go into it or going back to Rome City area. When we walked toward the Vatican, we’ve been offered some “services” by so many people I don’t trust. As you may know, there are so many scams in touristy places so my guard kinda went up really high and strong.

Me and Daniel were wearing shorts when we were heading there because we didn’t intend to get into Vatican City, we just want to visit it from the outside. You might be asking why, first it is so expensive and I am a cheap traveler, second the waiting line was super long and I wasn’t and ain’t patient enough to wait in such a scorching sun.

When we were approaching the Vatican City, there was this man who approached us saying that this isn’t the Vatican entrance and we can’t get in because we were wearing shorts. He insisted that we should follow him to “the real entrance”. I have been reading these robbing cases in Rome before I got here so my guard was up.

I started yelling at these people and he started preaching me saying ” didn’t your father teach you how to speak young lady?” I was even angrier with this patriarch’s scammer. I dragged Daniel straight to the Vatican and ignored the scammer. In the end, we know that the place he told us as “the main entrance to the Vatican” is actually a dead-end alleyway. We were saved because I have a hobby of fighting scammers, lol.

So my tips to avoid scammers are:

First, try to say “no’ politely and repeatedly and try to walk past them real quick and show them that you know where you are going and you don’t need their “help”
Second, if they persist and keep following you, tell them “I don’t need it!” boldly
Third, if they keep pestering you and start to be mad at you for being stingy or stubborn or any kind of insult just leave them alone or in my case I will yell back at them and be fierce and swear at them look like I am ready to make a fight and call the cops at that exact moment, lol.

Daniel told me, one of my hobbies is definitely fighting scammers (lo) because that happened on our first date as well, haha. I think I made quite an impression there lol.

Because we didn’t really want to go into the Vatican, we just took some pictures and sat down in a corner enjoying the view.

If you go straight from the Vatican front hall (?) you will find so many nice shops and gelato places (yeay). We went straight from there, crossing the street then we found a very beautiful park. It turns out to be a castle called Castel Sant’Angelo. The park is so beautiful and we found a book market in the park, also a carousel that operates by an old man. It was such a beautiful day.

By the time we finished taking a rest in this park, it was already time for me to see my friend. So we decided to walk 3 km from the park to a cafe where we will see her. After seeing my friend, we head back to our guesthouse by foot (again). That is for that day, and the next day we would take a train to eat pizza in Naples!