The Roman holidays.....

All roads lead to Rome. Rome is the world's capital.The most beautiful city in the world.
We've heard them all, and in parts, they are true.
But there's a face to Rome that the average tourist doesn't know about until it's too late:the scammers.What do I mean exactly? Well, let's just say you're planning a holiday in Rome, preparing the budget, places to visit, fares, prices, all that. Don't do it. Why? Cause your budget and initial planning might get a hard slap in its face once you're ''enjoying'' yourselves on the streets of Rome, in one of your restaurants or museums.Let me get to the point.
I work as a waiter in a restaurant in Rome. Although I'd reccomend it happily to anyone interested, at the same time I'd like to tell people to stay away from it.Why?
Hmmmm...(clearing throat) well, you arrive there, get seated, enjoy nice Italian cuisine(made express, by the way), some nice wine to it and at the end bang! the bill arrives and you notice that you've got to pay a 15% service charge extra to what you've eaten and drunk. Now, sometimes if you get pizza and pasta you might not get it at the same time, the beef is not of high quality(I'm always eating beef on my day off and it's ten times better that the one I work with, although I buy it from a supermarket), although the price shows otherwise. So why should you pay 15% extra? What for? Now, the trouble is the bill tells you this 15% coming from nowhere is actually service charge, meaning that most of my customers think I'm putting these money into my pocket. I wish...The truth is this 15% is all for the owner, they don't pay taxes off it and it's quite illegal as well. So, I'm not nicking anyone's money. Please don't look at me as if I've robbed you. I don't have the intention, never had.What's nice to know too, is that if you happen to eat in one of these restaurants where they teach you a lesson with either a service , bread or cover charge, you'll be paying all of it just cause you're a foreigner and if you ask about ''what's this or what's that'' they might treat you by speaking Italian, although they might've grabbed you inside the locale in English. Italians don't pay such things. Don't let yourselves fooled by ''it's a goverment tax'' or ''it's because this reastaurant lies in the centre''. That's just bollocks.
Here's some other examples of real Roman scammers.
A couple months ago there was a case discussed in local papers about a Japanese couple that ended up paying a total of 700 euros for a dinner.Including 150 euros for the TIP!!!!
Another Jap lost some 4000 euros in a night club for a bottle of Champagne!!!!
Roman ''gladiators'' asking 20 euros for a photo with them!!!
You might end up paying triple the price for a coffee just because you take a seat!!!
The hotel room you booked is no longer available due to internet problems(sic!!) thus resulting in paying more for another room but with the same services.
So, people, in case you're planning a holiday in Rome, be wise and take my advice: go to Croatia, go to Portugal, go to Cyprus, Malta, Egypt, go any other place than Rome. Go some place where money has value and you're not getting back flat broke with no memories, no souvenirs and not even served for what you've payed!
Good luck,
T.