I had to buy a new bus pass today. I have been worried about this because when I bought one in January K was with me and she did all the talking. I didn’t want to mess it up so I looked up how to say it on Babelfish. I tried looking in my dictionary and my phrasebook, but I wasn’t having any luck.
Babelfish is a very handy website. I often copy bits out of Italian websites and take them over there to find out what on earth they are saying. As an aside, it is also fun to just translate random phrases like “the postillion has been struck by lightning” and “my hovercraft is full of eels” (those of you who have read Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson will recognize those).
But I digress; I walked into the Tabacchi and asked for it in a complete sentence. I am so good. I said “vorrei un biglietti mensile per favore”, and then I added “e due per les bambinis”. I didn’t even get stage fright or anything. Then he asked me how old are the children and I told him. In Italian! This was going fantastically well. And then, the wheels came off.
I heard him say no and then bambini and that was all I got. So after some hand waving and slow Italian from him and some blank looks from me, another man came into the shop. The man behind the counter asked him something. Then the man who had just come in told me children under 10 do not need a bus ticket. They ride for free. And he said this in English. Rats. So I took their word for it and just bought a ticket for me. Then I came home and looked on the ATAC (Roman public transit) website to see if he was right. And he was! Imagine that. I am so annoyed with myself for buying them tickets last month. Oh, well. Live and learn.
Another highlight of the day was lunch at the delicious pizza place in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. The Princess and I both had the potato pizza. I could eat it every day. The C-man had cheese and Tom had mushroom and prosciutto. They were all delicious. And the place has a name! It is Pizzarius. I had never noticed that before. If you ever find yourself hungry for pizza in Trastevere I highly recommend it. While we were in there choosing our drinks from the cooler I noticed that they had small single-serving bottles of wine on offer for 2 euros. A coke cost 2.50. Oy. You gotta love a place where wine costs less than pop.
Finally, late this afternoon we went on the Trastevere city walk from our deck of Roman Walks cards. First we went up to Tiber Island and did a lap down by the river. Most of the island is taken up by a big hospital. Apparently there has been a hospital there since Roman times, when they used to quarantine plague victims on it. Charming. I’m sure the present hospital is much better.
Then we wandered through the streets of Trastevere and saw the church of Santa Cecilia. There is a very beautiful statue there of the saint by Stefano Maderno. The church itself is very pretty. The walls are quite plain, but the ceiling has fantastic frescoes on it. There is a crypt underneath the church with some roman ruins, but we opted to save that for another visit, since it’s so close to home.
Next on the agenda was St. Francesco a Ripa. It has a very famous statue by Bernini called the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni. Apparently after he finished it some people thought it might be slightly inappropriate. And I have to admit she does look very ecstatic and I can see why people might have had their noses bent out of shape. It’s very beautiful though.
I love walking around this part of town because it is very atmospheric. There are lots of narrow, winding streets, laundry hanging out to dry, tiny little restaurants, and motorcycles everywhere. I think this will be a good walk to do with guests when they start arriving.
Posted by goitaly 
