Let's Not Meet Again

Dangerous Italian Creeps

This happened in 2007 when myself and a friend (two 17 year old females from Ireland) spent 2 weeks in a small town in Italy to take part in a language course. We were studying Italian at school and needed to improve our spoken Italian before the exams.In this small town, there was nothing much to do for two teenage girls, so we looked forward to going to the local bar each night and having a few drinks.

The bar we are in (like a lot of places in Europe) free-pours the alcohol, so although we have "only" had around 3 vodka and cokes, in reality it is probably the equivalent of splitting a large bottle of vodka. Basically, we are plastered.

We end up (unfortunately) talking to these two Italian guys who seem to be about 23/24 years old. One of the guys is really quiet so his friend does all of the talking. After about 15 minues it becomes very apparent that the talkative guy is interested in my friend, who at this stage is very worse for wear and practically falling asleep at the table. He becomes increasingly predatorial, squishing himself as close as possible to her and was quite forcefully carressing her arms and legs.

At this point I decide that enough is enough and that we have to go home. Or course they follow us. So I am trying hold up my friend and steer her home, while this guy is becoming more and more aggressive. After about 10 minutes of walking and me continually telling them to "Fuck off and leave us alone", things take a bit of a turn for the worse. He aggressively starts to try and pull my friend away from me, and when I hold on (it is like a game of tug-of-war) he starts to get violent, slapping my hands and arms, and at one point narrowly misses my face.

At this point i'm yelling at my friend to sober up and be of some use. Like I said, it was a small Italian town and this was a mid-week evening, so no one was about in the streets. We are pretty much on our own. After a few more minutes of struggling, it seems like they finally take the hint and bugger off. We walk a bit more down the street and my friend is managing to sober up. From where we are, we have to take the next left, and then our appartment is on the next street on the right.

We're about to turn left when I see a newspaper stand further up the street. The stand is closed (obviously) and faces the street where are flat is located. It is very dark, but I can just make out a sort of circular shape above the newspaper stand. As I am looking, the circular shape ducks down and I realise that it was someone's head. The guys are hiding behind the newspaper stand, with God knows what intentions. Sheer panic sets in as I am trying to assess the situation, wondering if these guys are really going to hurt us, and how we would be able to avoid them seeing us go into our appartment from their hiding place.

I decide that, instead of turning left immediately. we'll keep walking until the next left, and then take the next left turning on that street. If you imagine, it is a U shape so we have two options for getting home from where we are (with our flat being located right in the middle of the street). We walk a bit further and take the next left. On this street, we cannot see the guys or the newspaper stand. Trying not to cry, I turn to my friend and say "We are in a very dangerous situation. When we get to our street on the left, they will see us. I don't know what they are going to do, but you have to run to the door. Run as fast as you can. Don't waste your energy thinking about them - use all of your energy for running."

At this point, she starts to cry, having not realised the severity of the situation until now. She hands me the house key from her bag, which I hold tightly in my hand, prepared to open the door quickly. As we reach the corner of our street, we see two shadows at the other end. Both duos simply stand and watch eachother from a distance for a brief moment and then I whisper out of the side of my mouth: "Run".

We start sprinting towards our appartment (bearing in mind it's quite a long street). When the guys see us running they start legging it down the street. My friend starts screaming and i'm yelling at her to move faster. After what seems like forever we reach the door of the appartment and i'm frantically trying to push the key into the lock. She is screaming "Hurry up! They're coming! They're going to get us!" I finally managed to open the door, and we practically fall through, slamming it shut.

Literally 2 seconds after we shut the door the guys arrive and start frantically trying the handle, banging on the (transparent) door with their fists. Me and my friend are just sitting on the stairs, crying, trying to catch our breath. We watch them as they try to bust open the door with their shoulders, screaming curses in Italian. They eventually stop and we walk up the stairs to our flat. About 15 minutes later I walk quietly down the stairs to check that they were gone - they are both still there, standing with their hands and faces pressed against the glass, staring.

So creepy Italian potential rapists, let's never ever meet again.