Italy,  Rome,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

Almost abducted in Rome

I was just browsing through my pictures of Rome when I recalled an incident at Via Merulana. I wanted to blog about it but somehow forgot.

On my 2nd day in Rome, I went to a middle eastern restaurant called Shawarma Station alone for dinner. Linda was just too tired to go out for dinner. After having my dinner, I walked out from the restaurant and that was when I saw a car pulling over by the roadside. As a row of parked cars separated us, a man from the passenger’s side screamed out to me. From his hand gesture, I knew that he wanted me to come near him. I shook my head in refusal and walked on. My heart was beating fast. I smell trouble. He wasn’t all satisfied and screamed ‘polizia’ to me with the hope that I would be so naively stupid and think that he’s a policeman and go to him. But I am not an easy target to fall prey into such situation. My thoughts ran wild and I could not help but created an imaginary scene in my head where he would just grab and tuck me in the rear seat, seal my mouth with duct tape, tie my hands and drove me off to a place where they would rape, kill and ditch me at a nearby river (thanks to CSI tv show, I am able to imagine the worst).  The imagination along with faces of my son, husband and mum kept rolling like a repeated non-stop montage in my head.

Having the thoughts of what might happen, I ran faster and seek refuge in a nearby cafe. I waited for awhile before peeking from behind the wall of the cafe. I saw him leaving with the driver of the car. If he had came for me, I would SCREAM for help. I’m very sure such big scream will not fall on deaf ears.

I was all blue in the face, and to make it brown again, I bought a latte from the cafe. I ran fast to the B&B where I stayed and quickly locked the main entrance and went to my room.

Lucky me, this was the only bad incident happen during my trip to Italy. Other trips to Venice and Firenze was smooth and safe. I am taking this chance to advice you to take safety precaution when walking alone in an unfamiliar land. Have a friend walk with you, no matter what. But if you have to walk alone, be extra careful and you should always bear in mind that danger is lurking around the corner.

Picture taken from inside the B&B

Top view of the B&B, screen-printed from GoogleMap.

8 Comments

  • milkberry

    omg kak emila! thank god you’re okay! what you did was so clever and fast thinking! my dad always say you are safest in a crowded area. i hope you won’t get those kind of encounters again. takutnya! mesti malam tu takleh tido kan?

  • mizzyn

    kak emila, thank God you are safe there. Nowadays I make it a point to walk/go everywhere with a friend, before I got married I love to go around KL alone on public transport because it was easier and I can take my own sweet time to do my own thing. I didn’t want to make people wait for me looking and going to place they have no interest in. But now I do my shopping along with friends even if it meant not being able to take my own long sweet time hahahahha.

    take care. I just moved into a new house and so have not so much time to travel fro blog to blog. Wait, I haven’t been here since I started preparing for my wedding three months ago! Well I’ll be here more often after this, bye.