One of the things that I’ve learned about Italians is that they are utterly terrified of bad weather. No matter how minimal it is, it’s the end of the world.

Every single time it is even slightly grey or cloudy outside, my host mother makes sure I am completely bundled in impermeable clothing before leaving the house. Rain jacket, rain boots, and without question an umbrella must be on me at all times.

This morning has been the biggest example of this Italian behavior I have ever seen in my entire life. As I woke up this morning and went down stairs  it was noticed that it was snowing.  I got so excited, my first time in snow this whole winter. The snow barely covered an inch on the ground, but still, it was snow!

My normal routine carried on, walked out the door at 7:25 to catch the bus, got on the bus around 7:35. As soon as getting on the bus I noticed that less than half the people that normally are on it, weren’t. Two minutes into our commute to town the bus slows down and slides slightly while going down a hill. As soon as it began to slide, every single italian in the bus lets out a death shriek. After five minutes of being stopped we are notified that there was an accident up ahead. In my head I’m saying to myself “Seriously? there isn’t even half an inch of snow on the roads!” But sure enough there was actually a car that had driven off the road into a ditch.

I immediately called our Direttore of school to notify him that we’d surely be late arriving to school today.  When he answered, before even giving me a chance to speak all I heard on the other line is: “NON C’E SCUOLA, NON C’E SCUOLA, NON C’E SCUOLA,”(if you didn’t catch on that means “there is no school”). My classmates that I share the bus with quickly got off the bus and walked home.

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