Hello, I'm a 20-something year old traveling to Italy (Rome, Milan, Venice) for the first time in April and am looking for some advice and possibly personal anecdotes from other female solo travelers. I'm mostly concerned with personal safety. This isn't the first time I've traveled alone, but I've only ever been to other english speaking countries (like the UK) or countries that have been known to be very safe for travelers (like Japan).
Having gone to school and worked in San Francisco for 5 years now, I'm pretty accustomed to big cities and how to keep my wits about me as a young woman. I've even lived and gone to school in Oakland which is considered one of the most dangerous cities in America known for shootings and people breaking into homes fairly often. I hope that having done my fair share of walking by myself down seedy areas of town at night and being constantly aware of my surroundings that I would be mentally prepared to travel to Italy by myself and not get into too much trouble.
However, despite the dangers of these cities, it's still familiar enough a territory that I know where to find help or how to get to general landmarks like train stations. In a foreign country, it might be a little harder. No matter how well practiced I am in using my common sense, there's always going to be things that I can't control that might make me a tourist target like the fact that I'm so small (barely 5 ft) and look like a teenager despite being an adult. Or the fact that I'm Asian (which I've heard has sometimes made people a target because Asians tourists are seen as being well off). Or the fact that it's still a foreign country which means I might not pick up on some subtle danger signs that locals can pick up.
I've read a lot of other blogs written by female travelers about the dangers of petty crimes and harassment by men in Italy, but any additional reassurance or tips would be supremely helpful. Thanks!
