Morwen, this story is set in Rome. A woman from southern Italy appeared at the Carabinieri police station and told them her boyfriend hat gone, taking their common holiday savings with him. The lady officer told her to file the case in the couple's home village. The victim, as broken-hearted as broke, sensed a lack of compassion and went to the Polizia di Stato. After an hour she returned and sobbed: "They told me the same". Well, I don't really think the man had gone to Switzerland with his loot (a holiday in Rome can be expensive, but living in Ticino all the more so).