Being asked for money from strangers on the street is common in Italy. Usually it’s women, but we’ve seen a few men as well. Women usually either have a child in tow or have a picture of children. Men are usually physically deformed in some way with either one arm missing or a severe club foot.
We don’t give money away to beggars. The only time we did is when one woman helped us out with luggage on our way to Rome from Florence. It’s not that I don’t want to help people out but if they can work that hard panhandling I’m sure them can work hard at a real job.
Yesterday we encountered a woman asking us for money. She had a young girl with her, around 9 or 10 years old. They approached us just after we sat down at an outside restaurant table. We said no and they moved on. Vic noticed the young girl was very clean with nice clothes and new looking Nike sneakers. Sometime later I saw them sitting at the base of the church steps on a milk crate. The young girl was eating a huge (and I mean big) cone of gelato.
Since she was positioned in my line of sight I could see she didn’t receive any money all the while her daughter was eating the ice cream. Then they left. Maybe she should have gotten the cone after her day was over and she could have made a few more coins. Vic wanted to take a picture just for the irony, but I wouldn’t let him. Clean, nicely dressed, and able to afford a gigantic ice cream cone? What was she thinking?
Yesterday we encountered a woman asking us for money. She had a young girl with her, around 9 or 10 years old. They approached us just after we sat down at an outside restaurant table. We said no and they moved on. Vic noticed the young girl was very clean with nice clothes and new looking Nike sneakers. Sometime later I saw them sitting at the base of the church steps on a milk crate. The young girl was eating a huge (and I mean big) cone of gelato.
Since she was positioned in my line of sight I could see she didn’t receive any money all the while her daughter was eating the ice cream. Then they left. Maybe she should have gotten the cone after her day was over and she could have made a few more coins. Vic wanted to take a picture just for the irony, but I wouldn’t let him. Clean, nicely dressed, and able to afford a gigantic ice cream cone? What was she thinking?