Have you ever felt stranded in a place where you had never been before? Well that’s how my family and I felt on a tiring day in the Italian city of Rome when we were pickpocketed.We had to learn how to move on from this setback in order to still enjoy our trip.

It was a hot, bolstering, sunny day. As we concluded the long, tiring flight from Toronto to Rome, we witnessed an amazing transformation from a cold, rainy city to a hot sunny paradise. As we stepped off the plane, we admired the new landscape filled with tall palm trees. As soon as we entered the humid atmosphere, the heat wave hit us with a tremendous blow. After passing through customs and immigration patrol, the search for a taxi began. As we inched our way through the large chaotic crowd, we bumped shoulders with hundreds of italians. We asked the italian people for a taxi with puzzled looks on our faces. They responded by rapidly saying, “Non so dire quando sei,” which seemed like gibberish to us. Realizing that these people would be no help, we set out to find a car that had a taxi sign on it. Finding this was no hard task as there were taxis everywhere on the busy streets of Rome, but we finally managed to make our way to the hotel.

After dropping our heavy suitcases off at our hotel, we decided to begin our visit by eating a delicious dinner in the Trastevere District. As we walked through the streets, we sipped ice cold water every few seconds, and read our guidebooks to figure out what the most effective method of transportation was. After deciding that the bus system was the best route to take, we made our way to the bus stand. At the stand, there was a series of suspicious activities occurring. As I continued to scan the guidebooks, I noticed out of the corner of my eye an older man with a gruff beard, glancing towards me. Similarly I saw a younger woman near the man glancing at my mom. I decided that they were no threat and boarded bus 64, eager to eat a delicious dinner. On the bus, the wait for dinner seemed like it was forever. My motion sickness started to kick in as the bus continued to accelerate and decelerate in the hot environment. I glanced at my parents, hoping that they had an answer to my hunger, but they seemed to be busy in their own matters. At last, everyone was off the bus, leaving just my parents, my sister, and I. The bus driver stared at us awkwardly, thinking as if we were insane. Then he approached us and asked, “What stop?.”

My confused dad responded, “Trastevere.” All of a sudden, the driver started to shake his head violently, signaling that we were in fact on the wrong bus.

Enraged with hunger, we decided to settle for gelato at a nearby gelato shop. We stared at all of the delicious options and flavors, struggling to decide which of the delicious flavors we would enjoy. After the hard decision to go with strawberry, my mom pulled out her wallet from her purse to pay for the gelato. All of a sudden, her hopeful look changed to a worried look as she screamed, “Where did my wallet go?” We huddled around her and realized that we had been pickpocketed on the bus.

My dad suddenly exclaimed, “I felt a hand in my pocket and thought that I had almost been pickpocketed. The same person must’ve pickpocketed you.”

After recovering from the shock of being pickpocketed, we were able to continue our trip happily, making sure we didn’t get pickpocketed and that we were enjoying our trip. Two days later, after recovering from the shock of being robbed, we read in our guide book, “Bus 64 is known for pickpockets so be careful.”

This experience helped me learn that we will face many hardships and setbacks in life, but that we must learn to move on from those setbacks and continue to enjoy life for what we have.