crossing the street

Crossing the street is an art form.

Sure, you can wait for the little walking man to light up green and allow you to go. But what do you do when confronted with cars whizzing by in monstrous traffic, the need to cross the street, and no pedestrian light? The italians simply dive right in.

So what if there's a truck headed straight at you? Just walk into the street. Italian drivers have an uncanny ability to gauge how long it will take you to cross the street. For the love of God do not get scared and stop. Then you'll get it. Keep walking, and they fly on behind you. They also don't seem to like threshhold breaking. No one stops until they absolutely have to (meaning 3 feet from your leg). The trick is to just go. Don't look at them, don't make eye contact. Just go. Seriously.

This morning I went for a run around the Vatican. Yeah, it's kind of cool that I ran the circumference of an entire country this morning. But I digress. Even at 8:30 in the morning, there are crowds of tourists. I came to an intersection a few blocks from the Vatican where the cars where passing non-stop. I noticed a group of tourists (German?). They stood at the crosswalk looking extremely confused and a tad disgruntled. Feeling quite proud of myself, I simply ran straight into traffic as the tourists gawked. The cars stopped, and I made it to the other side unscathed, without breaking my stride. Now I am no pro at this. It scares the crap out of me most of the time. However, I want to absorb as much of this culture as I can, so I'll run into traffic if it makes me seem more like a local.

However, my bubble burst today when I went to the open air market near il mio apartamento, ordered my bread in Italian, and the girl behind the counter said "Two euro's. Do you want a bag?"