Three days in Rome. Then Sicily. And you woke up with pink eye.

You planned this trip for months. The Colosseum, the Vatican, the Borghese Gallery — and in three days you're on a flight to Palermo. You cannot afford to lose a single morning. And yet here you are, one eye red and crusted, wondering how you're going to fix this without spending half your day in a waiting room.

You think — I'll just go to a pharmacy and ask for eye drops. But you can't. Italian pharmacies do not dispense antibiotic eye drops without an Italian prescription. The drops that actually treat conjunctivitis are prescription-only. Without a prescription, all they can offer you is something that won't work.

You could try to find a local doctor — but private practices in Italy don't take walk-ins and you have to pray the doctor will have time to see you. Your only real option is the emergency room, where you may have to wait for hours, explain your medical history in a foreign language to a doctor who has never met you. All for an eye infection.

Or you text us. We assess you by video, issue your Italian prescription within the hour, and you're at the farmacia before it's even crowded. The Colosseum isn't going anywhere. Neither are we.

The Traveler Clinic is not an emergency service. For life-threatening emergencies call 118 (Italy) or 911 (US).