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Cross the Street in Rome

Walking across a busy street in Italy’s capital is no easy feat. It’s an art, and as David Farley explains, you need some serious sprezzatura.

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Cross the Street in Rome

The situation: There’s a specter haunting the Eternal City. Italian prime minister Romano Prodi called it “diabolical” and the Vatican said it was “collective madness.” German families stand curbside, clutching one another’s hands like they’re about to take a collective plunge off a precipice; lumpy American tourists, frowning as they clench their Rick Steves guidebooks to their chests, keep their new white tennis shoes firmly planted on terra firma. Hop off the train at Termini station and wander into Rome’s historical center and you’ll know why so many tourists are stuck on the side of the street: traffic. More specifically, an endless, erratic stream of clunky Fiats, buzzing Vespas, and sleek Smart Cars, their drivers honking and swerving and gesturing and carrying on miles-long arguments with one another (or are they discussing last night’s Rome vs. Lazio game?).

The American assumption that pedestrians have the right of way and drivers will kindly stop when they see someone waiting at the crosswalk doesn’t apply here. There are 2.4 million cars to 2.5 million people in Rome, giving this beast of a city the highest per capita percentage of car ownership of any European capital. Until recently, the only requirement to driving a scooter was being 15 years old. No license needed. So, save for standing on the curb all day waiting for a break in the action—or for a miracle in the form of an always-traffic-stopping nun to materialize—the only thing to do is put your best foot forward. But there’s a technique to doing it.

Basic street crossing: It’s not like it is in others cities: New Yorkers wander off the curb with impunity, unconcerned about crosswalks or disgruntled cab drivers; Berliners wait until the little green crosswalk man tells them it’s okay to cross; and in Prague, where the speeding drivers don’t stop for anything save for a short skirt, stepping out in the street is about as smart as drinking the local absinthe.

For all its counterintuitive sense, crossing the street like a Roman can be summed up in one sentence: Step off the curb with a confident stride and the traffic will stop. But for the amateur street crosser, wait for a native to cross and then follow. Watch as they step off the curb with what appears to be reckless but suave abandon and, like Moses parting the Red Sea, the traffic magically stops. The best place to practice is the narrow, two-laned Via del Corso, which stretches through the historical center from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo.

Advanced street crossing: After following a local across the street several times, try going for it alone. In order to do it like a Roman (or to cross more “challenging” intersections), you’ve got to have one thing: sprezzatura. This hard-to-translate word pervades the Italian being. It’s the ability to make something hard look easy (who else but the Italians can make drinking coffee out of a tiny cup look cool?). In the case of crossing the street, it’s maintaining a cool composure as a swarm of scooters fly toward you. It’s your slow pace across the road as an army of automobiles come barreling forth at full speed. So, drape your jacket over your shoulders and step off the curb. Once you’ve successfully crossed the Via del Corso a few times, graduate up to the perpetually traffic-snarled Piazza Venezia. If you can get across this miasma of fast-moving metal amid the cacophony of loud honks, you can get anywhere in Rome. And if this doesn’t work, you can always pray for a nun.

What not to do: Crossing Frogger-style or darting like an antelope from one curb to the other doesn’t go down well in Rome. The first time I was in the city, faced with a never-ending stream of fast-moving traffic, I made a habit of sprinting across busy streets whenever there was a brief window of open pavement. Don’t do this. Besides confusing drivers, who time their trajectory to your stroll, running across the road is about as uncool and sprezzatura-rejecting as ordering “expresso” instead of espresso or wearing beaming white tennis shoes you bought just for your vacation. Romans don’t run. You shouldn’t either.

When David Farley isn’t strutting across Roman streets, he’s writing travel articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveler and other publications. He’s a frequent contributor to World Hum.

Photo by stanrandom via Flickr, (Creative Commons). Front page signs photo by roblisameehan via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Interesting.  In SE Asia, Frogger style is the only way to go.  It’s all about putting your faith in how much the drivers don’t want to hit you.  In Buenos Aires, I try to stick to the sidewalks and cross at intersections.  Maybe it’s the porteno Italian heritage that makes it such a dangerous city for pedestrians who stride with anything less than full confidence…

We published a how-to street crossing guide at BNT the other day and frankly some of the advice made me a little cross-eyed...hail a taxi, don’t get in, and run in front of it when it stops?  Recipe for a trip to the hospital in my mind.  But ah well, it’s all about provoking a discussion…

This turned out to be one of my favorite experiences in Rome! After a day of observing, I dove in, so to speak, with enthusiasm. In my experience though, the drivers don’t stop--they just alter their speed and/or trajectory to avoid you. That’s why it’s very important to keep a steady, predictable pace all the way across.

Actually “when David Farley isn’t strutting across Roman streets, he’s” doing something very wrong with the dog, but who am I to judge?

Well done, Farley! Stay sweet and don’t get squished.

Okay, let’s set the record straight here: google “I got cot f*#@ing the dog” (but writeout the f-word and be sure to use “cot” instead of the correct spelling) and see whose website you’re led to. Then you’ll know who’s really mistreating the dog. Ayun?

It’s not just an American assumption. While in Stockholm, I once had an encounter with a driver who refused to go until after I crossed. I insisted he had the right-of-way, but he just kept waving me to go. This lasted for about 5 minutes. It was a shock, coming from NYC. If they had a survey of best cities for pedestrians, Stockholm would take 1st place.

There’s always a logic - counterintuitive or not, wherever you go...After almost a lifetime in Italy, I would add here:
*always make eye contact with the driver of whatever; otherwise you DO risk getting run over. It does happen.
And remember:
*pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way no matter where they are in the street. As a driver you’d never win a case against a wayward pedestrian....
David is right though, sprezzatura helps.  Read The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione to understand just about everything about surviving in Italy - in the !6th and 21st centuries!

I agree with one other tip...don’t make eye contact with the drivers.  If they see you look at them and know you’ve seen them, they won’t stop.  If you just keep walking, they will stop.  A non-native Roman told me this and it seems to work...plus you don’t see a lot of pedestrians knocked over by cars.

Well, I beg to differ with Francesca...my two children are alive and well so far (touch metal, here) thanks to this tip. Take a tip,too, from the elderly who tend to launch themselves with an arm or cane thrown out in warning. 
Unfortunately, I do see pedestrians hit; fortunately, usually not seriously.
In sum. there’s much more fun to be had in Rome than dodging traffic....

Just checked my website stats, and apparently there are not one but two google users who were busted in a flagrant, un-spell-checked, canine, booty call situation.

Which would be one for you and one for me, Farley, but why would I be googling whose location I already know how to find...? Is there a third musketeer?

Anyway, wish i was in Rome (eating Vietnamese food) RIGHT NOW!!!

I can vouch for waiting to cross the street until there’s a phalanx of Italians.

On the fashion front, do NOT be tempted to wear your red slacks, like I did, to St. Peters Square unless you’re under 10.  You will feel like the opening scene of Schindlers List, like a beacon in the night, like your own private red light district.  You will STAND OUT.

Following someone who looks like he knows what he’s doing is probably the best bet, when you’re crossing a road in a new place. I have this tendency to jump in and freeze in front of a car if I’m alone.

Street crossing is one of the great adventures of travel. My first experience with sprezzatura was in Naples. Absolutely terrifying. I didn’t think the traffic would ever stop, so, follow the locals. It’s all about watching the locals..and asking questions when possible. Saint Petersburg is interesting too. You must trust that nobody wants to hit you and maybe willing them not to doesn’t hurt either.

On busy streets in Bangkok, I’ve waited for a group of monks and crossed with them.

Claire @ http://travel-babel.blogspot.com

I had my initiation in Italian street crossing in Naples...much worse than in Rome! And not only as a pedestrian, I braved the madness of the traffic all over Italy in a campervan. The roundabouts were, well, interesting!

But Italy is no comparison to SE Asia when it comes to crossing the street - I think the golden rule anywhere would be NO SUDDEN MOVEMENTS. Be predicatable and you should be alright.

Very fun this....try Catania at rush hours for a nice refresher - as pedestrian or driver - flashing stoplights at most (all?) intersections and roundabouts galore!

I can cross the street in Rome. That’s just NYC on steroids. But I was just in Bangalore and Hyderabad, where crossing major intersections is impossible. It simply cannot be done.

Sophie, crossing in Hyderabad may look difficult, but the advice of following a local is spot-on.  Stand just downstream of the local, and cross into the gap of traffic he/she has created.  Seems to work anywhere!  If no locals, though, one may be out of luck =)

Nice! I’ve bookmarked it http://www.propeller.com/submit/checkstory :D