Exploited, abused, trapped: The lives of Italy’s South Asian rose sellers

Street sellers bring moments of joy to enamoured couples but their journeys and struggles are far from romantic.

Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities. 

After a night of selling roses in Tuscany, Mohammed* was cycling along a seaside road when someone in a passing car hit him on the back with a pole.

He fell to the ground.

It was August 2013 and Mohammed was 22. He believes it was intentional and likely a racist attack.

“I was already broken,” he said. “But after that, I was in pieces.”