"Lost" bag in Rome
 

My mom was traveling through Rome to Florence. She is not very experienced with international travel so might get a little flustered. Yesterday from her hotel room in Rome to the train (which she took to Florence) one of her bags went missing. Not sure if it was grabbed or just misplaced.

Unfortunately her passport, money, etc. were in this bag. I am guess it is all gone, but since she will be back in Rome in a week, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to check to see if someone turned it in to lost and found.

If there is any chance my thought would be it was left in a cab (any way to check with them without knowing the cab company) or at the train station (Termi). Would this be something that the hotel she will be staying at could look into before her return? I know it is a long shot but there is a chance and I would hate to think that her bag is at some lost and found and that she did not get it back because she did not look at the right place. So I thought the FT community might have some ideas.

I'm afraid you're probably out of luck on this one. Still, it's worth a try.

If the hotel is a reasonably good one, go back and ask about the bag at the front desk/concierge. If it was left on the curb, maybe it's still there. If your mother can remember the livery of the cab (some are distinctive), maybe they can also help contact the cab company. Given that taxis tend to be territorial, there's a good chance that the same company, if not the same driver, will be at the spot where she originally got in. Other than that, check the train station lost and found and ask if a bag was found on a train that day.

Fingers crossed. I think that the best case scenario is that she'll get the bag back minus the valuable contents, but there's no guarantee on that.

Oh, yeah, if the passport was in the bag, check with whoever was listed in it as an emergency contact, if you haven't yet. If the hotel/police have the bag and opened it to identify it, maybe they got in touch with that person. Maybe the embassy/consulate as well?

Good luck.

file a police report
 

I hope she is not too stressed out about this and I expect it's good that you are helping, SFOAmdam.

I suggest she file a police report. Then if a bag is "found," and reported, there will be an ownership record. She may need a filed report for insurance reasons and for replacing the passport.

Sylvia