I was excited about the next lap of my trip. I had 3 glorious days in Rome. The Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The Colosseum and of course the Vatican’s Sistene Chapel were magnificent historical highlights of my trip that I was happy to have seen and experienced firsthand.

Next stop Athens. My flight departed from Rome at 8:55am. My hotel, Hotel Giolli, was 30 mins away from the airport via the Termini train station. The Termini station was 1/2 mile from my hotel–an easy walk for a cold February morning.

So I was up by 4:00am with plenty time to check-out of the hotel and walk to the train station with my suitcase rumbling loudly on the cobblestones in the early hours. I was feeling cute too. I was decked out in my newly purchased hat and scarf.

The roads were quiet. And only the occasional car passed me by. In less than 10 minutes I got to the train station and with ticket in hand headed to the section where the train to the airport was departing. I remember thinking to myself, “Where’s the crowd?” There were sprinkles of people around, but where I was standing was a bit isolated.

I did see some men who looked like Africans off to my left and that was about it. I was about 5-10 minutes in, waiting for my train, when a shabby-chic looking Roman native man walked by. There was something about his dress and demeanor that called to mind the movie Oliver Twist.

In less than a minute he was walking by me again but walking closer. I got the sense that I was being “checked out” and my look probably screamed “Prime American Victim!” Next time he passed he stopped and asked in accented English, “Do you have the time?” I immediately shook my head and said a quick ‘thank you Geesus’ that my watch was covered by my coat.

No sooner than I told him no, even more shabbier-chic men pooled into my area. By this time I could sense something was off. They all seemed to know each other and all had me as a primary focus. I could feel a sense of dread coming over me.

I felt almost rooted to where I was standing–in a trance almost. Ready to accept what was about to happen–feeling trapped. But in the midst of me trying to coax myself to run, I heard this deep voice off to my left calling out to me urgently. “Hello…Hello!”

Somehow this voice broke the spell of what was about to happen and the men who had started circling instantly backed away. I looked over to the voice and saw that one of the African men was calling me over to him urgently. I didn’t even think twice before hauling arse to walk the 20-30 steps to where he was standing.

I guess I had stupid American written all over me because he knew to talk to me in English. I was so grateful though and didn’t realize how terrified I was until he asked if I was ok and felt a great sense of relief coming over me. All I kept thinking was I could have lost all my money and passport!

The African introduced himself in his limited English and I managed to tell him I was heading to the airport. He was able to say that he would take a later train to where he was going and wait with me for my train and he did. He walked me unto my train and I handed him a business card and told him if he was ever in NYC look me up.

This was back in 2008. By then I felt like a veteran traveler. I had gone to Madrid the year before and walked just about everywhere and felt pretty fearless. I remember in Madrid that I stayed out long after the train system stopped running because of a flamenco show and was proud that I figured out how to get back to the hotel.

I got sloppy on this trip though. A few things could have been done differently.
1. Choose a later flight to Greece
2. Get the schedule for the train in advance and time my arrival to the train terminal to be less than 10 minutes before departure
3. Pay for a hotel transfer to the airport from the hotel.

Needless to say lesson learned. I shook off that bad memory and went on to Athens to experience an even older time in history. From the ruins of the Acropolis in Athens to the Argolis full day tour that took me outside of Athens to more ancient ruins, this solo trip created an even richer experience for me.

Have you had a bad experience going out solo? How did you handle?