Polak:

You have to know how to bargain with pathos in Italy. My dealings (when stationed there) were always made with much emotion and feigned sadness:

Me: How much for this handbag?
Dealer: "For you..50,000 lire"
Me: (hand to heart) "I can't possibly spend that...I must save enough to still feed my children"
Dealer: " (sighing) "OK Signora, for you 45,000 lire."
Me: " I just can't justify spending so much, thank you for your time." (walking off)
Dealer: "Ok, ok...for you Signora, 35,000, and that is all I can do...I must also feed my children."

We both wink and smile at each other as I leave the vendor's stand <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

I've only been to Italy once about 15 years back.
At that time (maybe it still is) inflation was so high, the small demoninations of coins were virtually worthless. So the shopkeepers in thier wisdom decided not to give out small change but to give you a couple of boiled sweets (hard candy?) instead.
Unfortunatly a pocket full of boiled sweets only amounts to a pocketfull of boiled sweets, when, after a few days of collecting them, I decided to try and cash in the revolting items in payment for some groceries. Needless to say, after a lengthy arguement, I didn't get my food, nor was I welcome back in the shop <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I haven't been back to Italy since....

arrivederci l'Italia

Nigeria is the global capital of fraud and scams, second is the state of Florida (really) in terms of dollars lost to scam artists.

check this out:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Nigerian+...:en-US:official

Martin, down here we call scam artists.....tourist attractions.

When I worked for a company that issued store credit cards we would always throw down a road block like that if we thought a caller was trying to scam us. And, you are right. The legit folks would hang in there while the fakes would cut and run.

Chris