An Australian traveler has revealed how her trip to Italy became a nightmare when she was allegedly kidnapped twice within hours by two different men.
Stephanie, an executive from Melbourne, visited Europe with friends last October.
When her friends flew out, the 36-year-old stayed behind.
She’s known for sharing DIY home renovation videos on social media and was interested in Italy’s €1-house programs: an initiative where abandoned or dilapidated properties are sold for a symbolic one euro ($1.14).
She was also drawn to the kiteboarding offered in the town of Lo Stagnone, near Marsala in Sicily, Italy.
While staying in the town, she joined a meet-up with fellow kiteboarders that seemed harmless, but soon became frightening and dangerous.
The group was heading to another bar, and trusting them, she got into a foreign expat’s car, only for him to speed away from the gathering.
“I got into the car, and he starts driving. We go 300 meters (about 984 ft), 400 meters (about 1312 ft); and he says, ‘let’s see if we can get this car to 160,’” she told news.com.au.
“And I’m like, ‘Sorry, what?’ He starts driving faster and faster, and I’m like, ‘No, please don’t. I want to get out.’”
“I’m terrified. So I start pleading, begging, and the car goes faster. Screaming, yelling, and the car goes faster. And these are small Sicilian roads.”
Eventually, Stephanie fell silent as she texted her location to her kiteboard instructor.
“And then his friend that was in the front passenger seat said to him, ‘Is everyone coming back to your place, are they?’
“And he goes, ‘No, absolutely not, no one’s coming.’
“So I realized that even the friend doesn’t really understand what’s going on. He’s confused.”
After traveling about 12 kilometers (7 miles), the car reached a gated compound and drove in.
“I just decide, well, I may as well check the car door. Because I’m not safe with these people. The friend doesn’t seem like he’s got enough backbone to stop whatever this man has in mind for me.”
Discovering the door was unlocked, Stephanie jumped out and ran.
”It opened, and I just ran and ran, for as long as I could, before I found an object to hide behind and check if I was being followed, and I wasn’t.”
After a couple of kilometers, she came across a quiet little town and saw a security guard’s car with warning lights.
Stephanie found the guard patrolling the area and used a translation app on her phone to tell him what had happened.
He agreed to give her a lift to her accommodation, and even called his boss to explain what he was doing.
She thought she was safe and moments from being back in her hotel room. But again, things took a sinister turn.
“He just pulls over into this alleyway, and he’s determined to translate on my phone.
“So I finally gave him the phone when he’d stopped driving, and he typed on the phone: ‘What are you going to do for me for driving you home?’
“So I just did the same thing. The door was open, and I ran into a vineyard.”
Having shaken off the security guard, Stephanie walked in the direction of her hotel, hiding whenever she saw headlights in the distance, not willing to take a chance on any other passer-by.
At vending machines along the way, she stopped to buy drinks so that the transactions could be tracked if necessary.
She made it home and “cried all the next day” before reuniting with the kiteboarding crew, who were “beside themselves” to hear of her ordeal.
Stephanie was left shaken by the incident and wants it to serve as a warning to others.
”It’s absolutely not an Italian thing,” she said, pointing out that the man who drove her away from the bar was a European expat.
“Unfortunately for me and a lot of my girlfriends, much worse things have happened to us here in Australia.
“I think we’d like to say it’s isolated to other countries. But we can see by domestic violence rates and the amount of women being unalived in Australia that it’s not safe here either.”
Stephanie said her dream of buying a house in Italy has been put on hold for now.
“I don’t think I’ll be going to Italy to work on a project unless I have someone that I’m doing it with now.”