Ten minutes off the ferry at Venice we stopped at a very crowded Service
Station on a toll road.  Whilst away from the car a gang member put a
large hole in the tyre of our brand new car.  Further down the motorway
we pulled over to change the deflated tyre.  Two men pulled up and
whilst pretending to be concerned about our predicament they distracted
us and stole my bag from our UNLOCKED car doors.   The bag contained our
passports, insurance, spectacles, medication - everything except our
money but we couldn't book into a hotel without passports.  It was a
Sunday and no one in Milan including the police were interested in
helping us.  We had to sleep in the car overnight and the next day at
the British Consulates office the only help we got was the use of a
telephone and eventually temporary passports that cost us a lot of
money.  We were dirty and had not been able to wash for 24 hours.  The
episode made me very ill.  I was just recovering from breast cancer and
my husband was recovering from a nervous breakdown.  It makes me mad to
think of the help that we would have got if this had happened in
England.  We felt like we were the criminals and were treated very
badly by the Italians.  Now we avoid travelling in Italy when possible
and breath a sigh of relief when we cross the border into another
country.