it is a situation many holidaymakers have found themselves in.
Blindly handing over wads of unfamiliar foreign notes, only to realise after a furious few minutes with a calculator you may have paid massively over the odds.
But a group of British tourists were stunned when they were charged the equivalent of £54 for just four ice creams in Rome, reigniting a row in the country about tourists being 'ripped off' by local businesses
Holidaymakers Roger Bannister, his brother Steven and their wives Wendy and Joyce ordered four cones of gelato from Antica Roma ice cream bar at the top of Via della Vite, just off Piazza di Spagna.
The group said they ordered four cones 'with two wafers and three flavours' costing a staggering 16 euros each.
The entire round cost 64 euros.
Speaking to Corriere Della Serra, Mr Bannister, a company executive from Dudley, in the West Midlands, said: 'We weren't sitting at a table...We bought the ice creams to eat in the street.'
Mr Bannister, who was on a six- day holiday to Italy with the group, told the Daily Telegraph that after paying that the staff had not even said 'thanks.'
Details of what happened to the group only emerged after a passing councillor, Matteo Costantini, stopped to talk to them after overhearing their indignation.
He said: ''They were justifiably outraged at what they had been asked to pay. It's scandalous and should not be allowed to happen.
'This is not the first time tourists have been caught out like this and it sadly won't be the last. 'There needs to be a clamp down on places like this that charge extortionate prices to unsuspecting tourists,' he told Sky News.
Mr
Costantini said that he had offered to refund the money to the group
but they had told him to donate it to a charity instead.
Managers at the bar told the newspaper that the ice creams price was justified as they were large portions.
They said the group had not been forced into paying and that they also had options which only cost 2.50 euros, with prices very clearly displayed around the shop.
But city councillor Matteo Costantini said it was not the first time that these things had happened.
In 2009, two Japanese tourists were handed a bill for €695 at the Passetto restaurant, leading the mayor of Rome to call for its closure.
Blindly handing over wads of unfamiliar foreign notes, only to realise after a furious few minutes with a calculator you may have paid massively over the odds.
But a group of British tourists were stunned when they were charged the equivalent of £54 for just four ice creams in Rome, reigniting a row in the country about tourists being 'ripped off' by local businesses
Outraged: Holidaymakers Roger Bannister, his brother Steven and their wives Wendy and Joyce with the receipt for their ice cream
Ripped off: The scandal is reigniting a row in the country about tourists being 'ripped off' by local businesses
Holidaymakers Roger Bannister, his brother Steven and their wives Wendy and Joyce ordered four cones of gelato from Antica Roma ice cream bar at the top of Via della Vite, just off Piazza di Spagna.
The group said they ordered four cones 'with two wafers and three flavours' costing a staggering 16 euros each.
The entire round cost 64 euros.
Speaking to Corriere Della Serra, Mr Bannister, a company executive from Dudley, in the West Midlands, said: 'We weren't sitting at a table...We bought the ice creams to eat in the street.'
Mr Bannister, who was on a six- day holiday to Italy with the group, told the Daily Telegraph that after paying that the staff had not even said 'thanks.'
Details of what happened to the group only emerged after a passing councillor, Matteo Costantini, stopped to talk to them after overhearing their indignation.
He said: ''They were justifiably outraged at what they had been asked to pay. It's scandalous and should not be allowed to happen.
'This is not the first time tourists have been caught out like this and it sadly won't be the last. 'There needs to be a clamp down on places like this that charge extortionate prices to unsuspecting tourists,' he told Sky News.
Ripped off: Roger Bannister and his family were
horrified after buying ice creams at the Antica Roma bar (left of
picture) in Rome
Managers at the bar told the newspaper that the ice creams price was justified as they were large portions.
They said the group had not been forced into paying and that they also had options which only cost 2.50 euros, with prices very clearly displayed around the shop.
But city councillor Matteo Costantini said it was not the first time that these things had happened.
In 2009, two Japanese tourists were handed a bill for €695 at the Passetto restaurant, leading the mayor of Rome to call for its closure.
Tourist spot: The bar is near the Spanish Steps, one of the most popular attractions in the Italian capital
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