Safety On-Site

Crime

While Florence is in general a very safe city, this does not mean that crime is nonexistent. By following a few simple guidelines and using common sense, you can protect yourself and have a safe and fun time abroad.

• Avoid sketchy areas at night. The area near the train station should be avoided at night. In particular, do not visit the McDonald's near the train station at any time, as it is quite unsafe. Additionally, steer clear of narrow side streets, public parks (especially Cascine Park), and the banks of the River Arno at night, since these areas are usually very poorly lit. 
• Be careful when drinking. Be aware of your level of inebriation, and do not let yourself become heavily intoxicated to the point of being unable to keep yourself safe. Don't leave your drinks unattended. If drinking with a group, make sure you all leave together, and do not let a drunk friend go off on their own. 
• Know the common scams. Tourist scams in Florence are common, and typically involve a "friendly" stranger offering you a free gift or asking for a small favor. They can be pushy, so know that it is not rude to decline. If you accept, they will either ask you to pay for it, or another person will attempt to pick your pocket while you are distracted. Taxi scams are also common; use only official taxis. 
• Keep a low profile to deter pickpockets. Don't show off expensive jewelry. Consider switching from a purse to a more secure crossbody bag. If you carry a bag or backpack, place it on your lap on public transportation. Do not carry your passport on you unless necessary. 

Your intuition is usually accurate: if you feel that the situation you are in is unsafe, retreat to a well-lit and populated area.

Pickpocketing

While Italy is generally very safe, pickpocketing and purse-snatching are very common – especially in larger cities like Florence and in areas frequented by tourists. Being aware of your surroundings and carrying your things carefully can help you avoid this situation.

A few simple actions can help you avoid being targeted by thieves:

• Be very careful with your things, especially when travelling to and from the airport, using public transportation, in busy streets, and in nightclubs.
• Once you have arrived at your hotel or apartment, lock up or hide all valuables (passport included) and only walk around the city with enough cash to get by for each day and a form of ID like your drivers license.
• Don’t present yourself as wealthy, aloof, vulnerable, etc.
• Limit your exposure – Instead of carrying around a designer purse, downsize and streamline to a basic wallet. Your wallet, phone, and money should NEVER be placed in your back pocket. When getting on public transportation, be sure to hold your bags in front of you — if you have a backpack, wear it backwards so the pack itself is at your front. Pickpockets often strike during moments of movement and confusion, such as embarking and disembarking a bus or subway. Remain especially vigilant during these times. 
  Tip: When you are in your program location, don’t carry your passport on a daily basis, as they are highly valuable to thieves. Carry a photocopy of the main passport page instead along with your U.S. driving license.
• Be wary of scammers – even the most innocent setups like asking for you to take a picture of/with might be setting you up for theft.

If you are robbed, please follow these steps:

• If you suspect you’ve been stolen from, don’t follow the thief and do not engage in a fight. Pickpockets and other petty criminals often travel together in groups, meaning that a direct confrontation could quickly become dangerous. 
  
• If you are hurt or there was any violence involved, please call the emergency phone. If there was no violence involved, you can send us an email to let us know what happened. 
• File a police report. Be sure to come prepared with as much information as possible: exactly where you were, what was taken, etc.
• Cancel any credit or debit cards that were taken.
• Notify the American consulate as they often receive lost IDs, wallets, etc.

Your family’s homeowners insurance may cover the cost of some stolen items. Check with them, understanding that you’ll need the police report to state exactly what items were taken. If your passport has been stolen you will need to bring 2 2×2 inch (5x5cm) photograph, a copy of the police report and a photocopy of your passport to the US Consulate. A replacement passport will cost between 70-200€.

Contact your on-site staff if you need any help at all!

Staying safe in the nightclub scene

It is completely normal to want to unwind after your classes and other responsibilities by spending a night out with your new friends! Just keep in mind that there are a lot of bars and nightclubs (“discotecas”) in Florence that are catering specifically to Americans studying abroad, which often means that they’ll be unreasonably priced and predatory when it comes to service. At CIS Abroad Florence, we strongly recommend that our students avoid Space Club, Yab, The Lion’s Fountain, and Red Garter. We have had countless incidents of students being stolen from at these locations, losing phones, jewelry, wallets, keys and more.

• Read the Google or Tripadvisor reviews for nightclubs before planning a visit. Some students turned down invitations to nightclubs after looking them up online and seeing a great number of reviews that report terrible service, shady behavior from staff, and generally unsafe conditions. Looking up reviews takes only a minute or two and can very quickly lead to changed minds once you see what other students have experienced.
• Go out in a group and make sure everyone keeps track of each other’s whereabouts. That means never letting someone split off from the group to leave with someone you don’t know, walk home alone, or even just leave your sight for too long. Text to confirm that your friends have made it back to their housing safely before you turn in for the night.
• Exercise caution around alcohol. A large number of incidents happen when students are very intoxicated and attempting to find their way home in an unfamiliar city. In Italy especially, public intoxication is taboo; if you attempt to reach out to someone on the street for directions or help, they will likely keep their distance once they realize you are drunk. Thieves will also specifically target students (even if they travel in small groups) if they are visibly drunk and out in the streets after around 1am. Drink in moderation, and always try to avoid being out on the streets too late (a vast majority of incidents take place between the hours of 1am and 5am).

If you feel you are being followed:

• Hotel front desks are often open 24/7 and are usually willing to call taxis.
• Head for well-lit and populated areas. 
• As soon as you feel you are in a safe location, call a taxi. 

Calling For Help

When calling for help, it's important to clearly state your location, the nature of the emergency, and any other relevant information to ensure a prompt and effective response. English is widely understood in tourist areas, but having some basic Italian phrases may also be helpful in communicating with local authorities. Here are a few helpful phrases:

• Aiuti (help me)
• Per favore aiutatemi (please help me)
• Per favore chiamate la polizia (please call the police)
• Dottore/medico (doctor)
• Ospedale (hospital)
• Farmacia (medicine)
• Infermiera (nurse)
• Emergenza (emergency)
• Incident (incident)
• Danno (injury)
• Dolore (pain)

Crossing the Street in Italy

Drivers in Italy are notoriously unfavorable to pedestrians, thus besides petty crime, the worst danger you might face in Italy may well be the act of simply crossing the street. In fact, every year around 600 pedestrians die on Italian streets, while another 21,000 are hurt. While the US, at 4,700 per year, has more pedestrian fatalities overall compared to Italy, keep in mind that the US has a much higher population.

Unlike what you might be used to in the US, do not expect Italians to bring their cars to a dead halt the very instant a pedestrian places his or her foot on the white, intersection zebra cross lines, otherwise known as le strisce.

Here is some advice on how safely and effectively cross the streets of Italy:

• Stand for a while on the curb at a busy pedestrian crossing and try to learn from the self-assurance that most Italians demonstrate.
• If there are Italians crossing, just scurry alongside them. If you are on your own, or surrounded by tourists, the trick is to get up your courage and stride confidently into the fray because if you just stand there waiting for drivers to stop, you could be there, well, for quite a while.
• Alternatively, hold out your arm, palm up and out in a stop gesture, and hurry across. Make eye contact with the drivers!
• Do NOT look undecided and stop in the middle of the crossing, like a deer caught in headlights.
• Do NOT stop and start.
• Do NOT become aggressive.

And remember – and this is important – the zebra stripes are not always zebra stripes. Some simply mark a crosswalk at an intersection governed by a traffic stoplight, a semaforo, which always takes precedence. So to put it simply, if there is a working traffic light, then this is NOT a pedestrian crossing and you do NOT have the right to cross on a red light.

Please take these precautions when out:

• Leave your passport at home (make a photocopy of the front page to carry out).
• Don’t carry large sums of cash on you.
• Wear your bag and camera across your chest.
• Put your wallet and anything else of value in your front pockets.
• Keep your belongings in your lap when sitting on a terraza or at the bar/restaurant not on the floor or slung over the back of the chair.
• Be careful who you ask to take a picture with your camera (you may not see it again!).
• Use taxis to get home late at night.

Hostel Smarts

Staying in a hostel while traveling independently is a great way to save money and meet other free-spirited young people! However, since you won’t have your own room and bathroom like in a hotel, you’ll have to be a bit more conscious of your belongings to ensure they’re secure. Here are some tips based on student experience traveling alone:

• If you are a woman traveling alone, or traveling with a small group of female friends, strongly consider staying in a female-only hostel room. When booking your hostel, you can typically filter for these types of rooms in your search settings. Regardless of gender, if you and your friends want more privacy, you can all request to book a bed in the same room together or share the cost of a private room.
• Bring your own personal lock to store your valuables. Hostels typically provide each resident with a locker to store their valuables, but you are usually expected to provide your own lock to properly secure the locker’s door. You can find a lock and key set at a hardstore store for about €10. (Hostels usually sell locks at the front desk as well, but they tend to be more expensive).
• Don’t be afraid to make friends! Hostels are designed for socializing, whether that’s recounting adventures with your roommates or relaxing together in common spaces. While you obviously shouldn’t put complete trust in a person you just met, making friends at a hostel can actually help keep you safe — you’ll have someone to join you when you head out so you won’t be alone, and you can watch each other’s things while you go to the bathroom or heat up some late-night leftovers.

Major Incidents

Earthquake Preparedness

The information below has been adapted from the official National Civil Protection Agency – Protezione Civile. For more information, please visit their website.

Italy and quakes 101

The Italian territory is exposed to seismic risk, thus being prepared for an earthquake is fundamental.

Safety depends mainly on the building where you live. If it is an anti-seismic building, it won’t be subject to major damages and will protect you. Wherever you are in the moment of an earthquake, it is very important to keep calm and follow some simple rules of behavior.

Keep in mind that some of the fundamental rules might be different here than in your home country because of different structural components of buildings and different rescue methods.

Over the past thousand years, some 3,000 earthquakes have provoked serious and less serious damages. Almost 300 of them (with a magnitude higher than 5.5) had destructive effects and one every ten years has catastrophic effects, with an energy comparable to the L’Aquila earthquake of 2009. Any Italian municipality can be affected by earthquake effects, despite the strongest earthquakes are focused in the following areas: Northern-Eastern Italy (Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto), Western Liguria, Northern Apennines (from Garfagnana to the Rimini area), and, above all, across the Central and Southern Apennines, in Calabria and Eastern Sicily. You too live in a dangerous area, where earthquakes occurred or where their effects were perceived. And it might happen again in the future.

When will the next earthquake occur?

Nobody knows, as it might occur anytime. We know a lot of things about earthquakes, but it is not yet possible to predict when, with which strength and precisely where they will occur. We know, though, which are the most dangerous areas and we know what to expect from an earthquake; being prepared is the best thing towards prevention and reduction of the earthquake consequences.

How can we better prepare our dwellings for an earthquake?

• Put heavy items on lower shelves; on the higher ones, you can hold objects with double-sided tape.
• In the kitchen, secure the cupboard flaps where plates and glasses are contained, so that they do not open during the shock.
• Learn where are and how to close the taps of gas and water and the master switch of the light.
• Pinpoint safe places in the house, where you can find a shelter in case of an earthquake: doorways, angles of the walls, under the table or under the bed.
• Keep at home a first aid kit, a flashlight, a battery-powered radio and make sure everyone knows where they are.
• Get informed if there is a Civil Protection Plan of your Municipality and what it provides for; should it not be available, ask for it, in order to know how to behave in case of emergency.
• Finally, remove any factor that, in case of an earthquake, can be a danger to you or your family.

What to do during and after an earthquake

If you are indoors:

• Find a shelter under a beam, in the doorway or by a load-bearing wall.
• Watch out for things that could fall and hit you (plaster, ceilings, windows, furniture, etc.).
• Pay attention to the stairs: in general they are not very resistant and can be damaged.
• Avoid taking the elevator – it can get stuck.

If you are outdoors:

• Move away from buildings, trees, lampposts, power lines: you could be struck by vases, tiles and other materials that can fall.
• Pay attention to other possible consequences of the earthquake: collapse of bridges, landslides, gas leaks, etc.

After an earthquake:

• Make sure the state of health of the people around you and, if necessary, be the First Aider.
• Come out with caution, wearing shoes: you may get hurt in the streets with broken glass.
• If you are in a zone exposed to tsunami risk, move away from the beach and reach a higher place.
• Limit, as much as possible, the use of the phone.
• Limit the use of the car to avoid obstructing the passage of emergency vehicles.
• Reach the waiting areas provided by the Civil Protection Plan of your Municipality.

Once you are safe, please mark yourself safe through social media and inform your site director.

"Io Non Rischio" Emergency Alerts in Italy

Io Non Rischio is a service provided by the National Civic Protection System. By registering with your phone number and email, you will be alerted by the NCPS of any emergencies that may occur during your trip (e.g. earthquakes, floods, etc). This is an excellent service for keeping you up to date on any emergent situations in Italy so you can plan accordingly. 

STEP Program

The US government provides a free service known as the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to all US citizens. Enrolling in this program registers your trip with the U.S. Embassy. In the case of an emergency, this allows the Embassy to contact you with important safety information, and can help put you in touch with friends and family.