Yesterday morning I woke up to hearing a helicopter, sirens, and yelling. I thought WW3 had broken out. Not exactly, it turns out. Between talking to my friend Linus who witnessed the whole ordeal, and talking to some of the people at the market, I've pieced this together: A mafioso had been caught stealing, and was on the run (on his vespa) from the police. He had almost managed to escape by driving into the market around the corner from my house which has a lot of overhead cover (to escape the police helicopter) and people (to blend in and escape the police on the ground). Unfortunately, he was driving so fast that he lost control of his bike and crashed into a market stall and an old woman. Then a brawl broke out. My friend Linus saw the whole thing and regained his wits in time to video-tape the subsequent events. So, while the fight was going on, the helicopter was circling MY roof. I saw it at first, but then it settled on a position above my roof and out of view. But it sure was LOUD. I managed to video-tape the sound of the helicopter, and the arrival of the police as they went flying down across a street at the end of my block. You can barely see them--they look just like little flashes of light they were going so fast. Check out the video that Linus and I combined from the two perspectives:




The police have been on a major mafia crack-down lately. The authorities are swarming in the city, and the police presence has doubled. It's all very exciting. They took down the top guys (and are on the hunt for the ones they didn't catch but have evidence against) and somebody ratted them out, and now everyone else is scrambling to get to the top. The business owners are all delighted because this means they don't have to pay pizzo (payment for protection from for and
against crime at their place of business). It's all anybody is talking about.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071105/ap_on_re_eu/italy_mafia_arrests


But, enough about the mafia. On to other criminal topics.

For the first time in my life, my justification for being in a country is being looked at. It's nothing serious, but one of the schools has to make sure I am not in the country "clandestinely" or on an expired visa. I'm not, but with the Italian gov't the way it is, who knows whether or not the paperwork dissapeared somewhere. It's a strange feeling and something I had never even thought of. We really take citizenship for granted. I'm not taking it for granted now.

Lastly: I was walking home the other day, looking darn cute in my dark turquoise dress and heels (no blisters this time), and I SWEAR this guy wearing a prison jumpsuit riding a vespa stops in the street and procedes to ride along side of my slowly, trying to get my attention and talk to me. I'm adding it to the book of "You know you're in Italy when...a guy in an orange suit with tatoos and missing teeth on the weeniest motorcycle in the WORLD tries to pick you up." Good grief.