088 autobus pubblicita'

Tales from the bus... the number 23 bus, which I take to work, is the
nicest bus that I have ridden in Rome. It's new, clean, with working
air conditioning, and it even has this little centralized TV screen
that informs and entertains the riders.

My commute is about 15-25 minutes, depending on traffic, and during
that time, blips are shown from news headlines and current events,
movie previews, and other public announcements. It also has little
animated horoscopes each morning. I had to figure out that "bilancia"
was mine from the little image of a scale, and then of course realized
the relation to "balance" in English.

There's also a funny little cartoon skit that repeats every 30 minutes
or so with a fat, blond, woman on a bus with sunglasses, a camera
around her neck, and shopping bags. A sneaky thief appears from
behind her and tries to pickpocket her, but at the last minute a cat
from under her hat jumps out onto the thief's face and hisses and
scratches at him. Then the text appears - in English - "Watch out for
pickpockets!" Funny funny.