Pedestrians beware!

Pictures

When in Rome keep one eye on the sights, and one on the cars. At about 7am we were on the search for the bus, and learned a few more things about walking in Rome. The walking lit up sign for pedestrians has several hidden meaning: Green= go quick at an awkward half run half walk pace, since everyone runs everywhere. Yellow= You think you still get to go, but only if you dodged the approaching impatient cars who don't care that it is still your turn. Red= go ahead and try, you'll die. When we were halfway across such an intersection it turned yellow. I felt no need to hurry, we still had plenty of time. Wrong. Remember what yellow means? Cars proceeded to fly in front and behind us. I yelled, 'Pedestrians have the right away' to which Bran responded, 'ya the right to get a free ride to the hospital, right away!'
Rome is crazy, but lots of history all around. My highlight was after we toured St. Peters we were heading out the exit. We both wanted to take the tour to the top of the dome, and I told Bran to make sure we figure it out before we exited. He assured me it was outside the entrance. So we left. Only till we were 10 feet from the exit did we learn that the line was off to the side, after you enter. Blaring in the sun, we looked at the line that wrapped the entire courtyard, about 3/4 a mile, when just one hour before we walked right in. The 'exit nazis' would not let us back in, even though they just watched us leave. We even begged, but nothing. They finally said, 'go ask that guy over there'. Bran looked at me, I gave him the you better fix this glare, and off he went. He explained his situation, and was not making much headway until Bran mentioned his wife, and he looked at me. Then he said, ok fine. I would like to think it was my stunning good looks, but am more inclined to say he pry took one look at me and thought, ' this poor guys will have to deal with his moody wife all day if I dont let them back in'. And, off to the top of the dome we went!