help a little old lady across the street
Crossing the street is serious business. In fact, it is very easy to tell a foreigner in someone waiting for ages on the sidewalk or trotting across the street in a run, only to freeze in someone's headlights. Because stopping to let someone pass is not something usual here. It's rather a personal favour and to be thanked for.
At the pedestrian crossing. Obviously: waiting for the cars to see you, then stop, then making sure that they really do stop, and then crossing... all this simply takes too much time. It is much easier to let the cars go by. Go by. Go by. Now, how should anyone be able to get to the other side without making someone brake abruptly and release a score of bad words?
It's quite simple really. All it needs to get across the street is a little synchronisation. What you should aim to do is just pass through the flow of cars with nonchalance, as though they were all standing. Spotting a gap, you should start walking directly towards the previous car to arrive in the middle of the road just as it has passed. Then the only issue is a few steps to clear off from the next car, which is no problem at all. Arriving in the middle of the road has already revealed a sufficient amount of understanding of the Italian road rules. You will live.
Now, this applies sufficiently well in North Italy (probably also in the hectic Milan, but I'm not making any promises), but Rome is a different story. In my time there I tried to make a video of the 3-5 traffic lanes on a normal 2-lane road, of the scooters swarming around everywhere, of 3rd line parking, of the locals crossing streets in some mysterious way, tourists freezing in someone's headlights... but I found it wouldn't be possible to really make it justice this way.
In this environment, all my practised nonchalance came to nothing and I found myself adopting a different pattern: walk-don't-look-pray. It works too.
At the pedestrian crossing. Obviously: waiting for the cars to see you, then stop, then making sure that they really do stop, and then crossing... all this simply takes too much time. It is much easier to let the cars go by. Go by. Go by. Now, how should anyone be able to get to the other side without making someone brake abruptly and release a score of bad words?
It's quite simple really. All it needs to get across the street is a little synchronisation. What you should aim to do is just pass through the flow of cars with nonchalance, as though they were all standing. Spotting a gap, you should start walking directly towards the previous car to arrive in the middle of the road just as it has passed. Then the only issue is a few steps to clear off from the next car, which is no problem at all. Arriving in the middle of the road has already revealed a sufficient amount of understanding of the Italian road rules. You will live.
Now, this applies sufficiently well in North Italy (probably also in the hectic Milan, but I'm not making any promises), but Rome is a different story. In my time there I tried to make a video of the 3-5 traffic lanes on a normal 2-lane road, of the scooters swarming around everywhere, of 3rd line parking, of the locals crossing streets in some mysterious way, tourists freezing in someone's headlights... but I found it wouldn't be possible to really make it justice this way.
In this environment, all my practised nonchalance came to nothing and I found myself adopting a different pattern: walk-don't-look-pray. It works too.
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