Girls love flowers - their beauty, their scent, their color. A woman especially loves flowers when the man in her life buys them for her. Italian men know this well.
Our last day in Rome led us to the Piazza del Popolo (People's Square), which is just inside the northern gate of the Aurelian Wall. An Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II stands in the center of the piazza. The obelisk was brought to Rome in 10 BC by order of Augustus and was originally set up in the Circus Maximus. It was re-erected here in 1589.We wandered around the piazza, soaking in the ambiance, when an Italian man approached us with an armful of red roses and declared, "Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman."
My vanity caved in and I took the three roses he offered with pleasure.
Two minutes passed and the man returned. Uh oh.
"How about you give-a me a little money?" he directed at my unsuspecting husband. Kevin dug into his pocket and pulled out a few euros.
"How about a little more?" the Italian complained.
Kevin gave him another.
"No. No. More."
"That's all I have," replied Kevin.
The man was still not satisfied.
We were trapped. If Kevin kept refusing, the man would make him feel like I was worth more. If he kept handing over euros, we would be broke! My initial pleasure turned to anger.
I turned to the scammer and said, "How about you give the money back and I give you the flowers?"
That did the trick. He frowned and walked away.We did not fall for that trick again!
But I did keep the roses! Here I am shortly after, strolling through the Villa Borghese area, roses tucked into my bag.
Haha, I love it!
ReplyDeleteWe got scammed once with ths stupid flower trick after leaving a restaurant late one night. The guy said something about he was going home and had these leftover and handed them to me. And you know the rest of the story. It took forever to get rid of the guy. Plus we were on a dark street late at night and there were other flower salesguys lurking around. It was a little unsettling. It was really the only unpleasant memory that I brought back from Rome.
ReplyDeleteOh, but we are both much wiser now, Chloe!
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