Our night with the Carabinieri

We debated whether to report the theft of the suitcase  - we couldn't imagine that it was worthwhile. We asked the hotel desk clerk if we should report. He said that we should and went to call the police. (Given the level of English in Turin we would have gotten nowhere.) He came back and gave us the address of the carabinieri.

The cab drove us to a dark building with an impressive iron gate. It looked closed, but as we walked toward the gate an officer came out of the shadows. It was the opening scene of Tosca. We were directed to a waiting area - 6 basic chairs and a few Italian magazines. I didn't check the dates, but it reminded us of a poor public clinic or welfare office.

The building felt deserted - there were no sounds indicating human activity. Soon an officer appeared at the head of the stairs and directed us to come up. He apologized that the light in the entry way was broken. Italy's economy is a mess, but the offices felt like underfunded public offices everywhere. His office had a map (looked like an area street map; a generic picture of a  man, woman, and child; and a carabinieri poster of men in full uniform - it felt like a ruminant of glory days.

He never introduced himself -  this may be Italian police SOP (I assume that it is) or reflect his anxiety about conducting an interview in  English. We assured him that this was a small crime. Small crime or not, the first thing I was asked for was my passport (back at the hotel) - he settled for Doug's. We went through the various items - from his questions we confirmed that the standard items are documents and laptops - not old clothes and papers (all downloadable articles). passports, laptops and so on). When he want to make sure information was right he tapped on the paper in front of him, which meant we were to  write the information. Included in the gathered information was my handphone number - I can't imagine less useful information than a Malaysian phone number; e-mail would have been better.

After about 45 minutes we signed the report - 3 copies - and he called a cab. It appeared almost instantly. His final words "See you."

Lesson - learned get travel insurance (not only for Italy).