More on the driving saga- Dangerous Pedestrians

Pedestrians can be just as dangerous as the drivers in this fair city. It is difficult for me to decide which stellar story to tell first....the crazy man with a broom, or the suicidal gold diggers?

Yesterday, we are driving the kids to school, as we do every morning. As I've noted, people drive insanely fast on our road...one that is over a thousand years old and has many tourists idly walking up it where there are really only sporadic sidewalks. Down the street from us lives a little old man and his wife. At first they were stand-offish when we walked by to get to the parks. Lately, he has begun to say Bongiorno or Salve when I walk by. But, yesterday, when driving to school the little old man let yet another side of his personality out. I pulled out of our driveway in front of another car (as one must do on our street in the morning), slowing down that car considerably. As I drove past the little old man with a broom he chased me with the broom, eventually catching up to me and hitting the car with the broom!!!! Now, I guess he thought I was going to fast, but this begs the question, if I was going too fast, would he have been able to catch me?

A couple of weeks ago, Richard and I were driving with the kids. As we neared the Appia to turn towards our house, a man jumped in front of our car from no where....luckily I was able to swerve out of the way, and didn't hit him. As I drove (shaking) away, Richard explained that there are people here that are so desperate that they jump in front of cars to get injured and hopefully receive insurance money. That is desperate and sad...and I was hoping that was the last time this happened. But, no...last week I was driving by myself on a fairly busy street. Luckily there were not many cars around, as when I approached the stop light a man jumped right in front of the car....literally almost hitting it! I swerved and jammed on the breaks, and luckily everyone was ok.....Sad and desperate....