Lost Luggage In Rome

My parents decided to visit my wife and I in Rome for a wonderfully long stay: 9 days. We knew in that amount of time, any visitor would not only be able to see the major sites of the Eternal City but could also easily get to those lesser sought. 

Because there was so much time available, we planned a weekend away halfway through their vacation.  Goodbye Eternal City, hello other city with some clever moniker! Where did we go? The first night was in Siena, Italy.  The second: Florence, Italy.  Both were excellent choices for the quick weekend away. And it was made all the better because Trenitalia offered first class train tickets from Florence to Rome for prices less than second class.  So we HAD to do this trip, naturally. 

My parents worked it out with their hotel when they first made reservations.  They would leave their big luggage there while we were gone, then they would come back to it and have another room for the remaining few days of the trip.

All would expect this to be a simple procedure. You store my luggage.  When I get back, you give it to me. But sometimes in Italy, or any other non English-speaking first language country for that matter, things aren’t that simple.

We arrived back in Rome later in the evening on a Sunday night, around 10:00pm.  My wife and I saw my parents off from the train station then we headed under to hop on the metro and get back to our apartment.  Thirty minutes later, we receive a phone call.

“Hey, can you talk to this front desk guy for me? He can’t speak a word of English and he has no idea where our bags are.”

Sure, I’ll take a crack at it.  The man comes on the phone and I tell him in fractured Italian, “Good evening. I don’t speak Italian well, but the bags… my parents need their bags.”

The tidal wave of Italian words crushed my ears. Brain partially melted, I had no idea what he just said. This is a job for VASGO’S EXPERT!

“Dear, would you take care of this?”

 Her reluctance didn’t stem from not wanting to help.  It’s just that speaking and hearing Italian over the phone is MUCH more difficult than in person. “Ok,” she says. “Hand it over.”

And the battle in Italian begins. Throughout the 15 minute ordeal, this was the gist of it:

“My in-laws need their bags.”

“They already have their bags.”

“No, those are their other bags. They have two other bags which they left at the hotel.”

“Only Alessandro knows about that.  He’s not here right now so we will wait until tomorrow morning to find them.”

“No, that’s not ok. They need their bags tonight.”

“Well I don’t know where they are. We already looked in the luggage locker down here.”

“They were told to leave the bags in their room and they would be available for pick up when they got back here.”

“Well I don’t know what room that was in.”

“It was 303.”

“There are people already in that room.”

“Forget it.  I will have my friend call you to explain this better. She speaks better Italian than I do.”

We got in touch with our friend and before she could call, my parents called us back letting us know the man decided to go to the rooms to double check. Of course their bags were already waiting in a different room. All he had to do was look a little harder.

This wouldn’t have been quite as bad if my parents had sought out this hotel on their own. Perhaps they would have justified this experience from this hotel if was their own findings. But they trusted this Rick Steve’s recommended location out of his Rome book. And not only did the gentleman speak zero English, he also wasn’t near the front desk to hear my parents buzzing the building entrance to be let in.  Sadly for them, they waited nearly 15 minutes in a dark and empty Roman street. They even tried calling the front desk during that time since I gave them my phone during their stay. Still it did not help them. Finally, after buzzing random tenants of the building and begging to be let in, one unknown hero saved that part of the day. 

They thing to learn from their experience is make sure you know exactly where your luggage is stored.  If your hotel tells you to leave it in the room, tell them this story so it is truly ready for you when you return.  Not everyone has a friend to call abroad.