Friday, May 29, 2009

A funny thing happened on the way to the Vatican: Groped on bus 40


These days you cant get much for 1 euro but I always thought that in Rome the metro and bus price being fixed at 1 euro was 1 great value for residents and visitors alike, though an unpleasant experience on a packed bus this morning makes me think that one Italian male traveller was getting a lot more for his euro than the rest of us!
As a single female traveller you hear of the stories of men rubbing themselves up against you on an overcrowded bus, but naively I always thought that these were just urban myths or just that the girls in question had picked up the situation wrong, that the man had merely bumped into them as the bus took off.
Well I stood this morning whilst riding the holiest of buses, the number 40 which brings you straight to The Vatican from Termini train station. As The Vatican is so popular you can imagine how busy this bus gets, so there my friend and I were on our way to work on the packed bus and by stop 3 it had become totally full so we were all standing very close to each other. At this stage I had no where to move and I also realised that the man behind me was slowly rubbing himself off me!!
I obviously assumed it was my imagination getting the better of me and tried to ignore it but it only got a bit more persistent and as I could not move I tried to rearrange my bag to form a barrier.
Bag = worst barrier ever! As soon enough he had shoved that out of his way and was back to rubbing himself against me again! Being a polite Irish girl and not wanting to cause a scene I just went red as a cherry and started to mumble awkwardly to my friend, then faking a coughing fit I finally managed to get into a spot where he could not get me.
My friend was able to confirm that he was in fact being a perv and it was not my mind being overactive, but seeing as she was a polite Irish girl too and her Italian is not the greatest, to try help me she had given the man a few filthy looks. It turns out this only encouraged him as no sooner had I got out of his way he began to move his attentions on to my friend!
Needless to say as soon as we could get a seat we took it and thankfully did not have to put up with Mr Perv for too long.
This certainly wasn't the first time this has happened to anyone and I am sure it wont be the last.. I know since I have told people this story I have been hearing many more of the same theme back.
So men back off ....that euro bus ticket does not entitle you to a Lap Dance!!

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