By Sade Adeyina
But first, let it be known that the most difficult bus to catch in Rome in the 23. It’s just HARD because it only comes once in a blue moon, especially when u really need it to come. So we left extra early preparing to wait at least 30 minutes to catch this stupid bus that would take us to the hallowed area of Trastevere (a charming place with restaurants and bars often overrun by obnoxious tourists). But, as luck would have it, after not even three minutes we almost died of shock when the bus came barreling our way!
But we got lost. We got off at the right stop, yeah, but Trastevere is full of winding side streets. Good thing it was a beautiful night. Empty streets didn’t sway us. We asked for directions and everyone was pretty sweet about it. And since I now understand directions in Italian, it was so cool for someone to say “a fondo a Via San Marco, girare a destra,” and I would know to turn right at the end of the street.
Eventually we found our way to Big Mama. Even after getting lost almost 40 minutes out of our way we were STILL early (mainly thanks to catching the 23 bus immediately)! The guy in the ticket booth was really nice and we bought memberships to the club for 13euro (not bad considering that we could now go to future shows for free). Although we didn’t book a table and had to stand the whole time, the show was AMAZING! I always liked blues music and old school rock and roll, but hearing it all live just made it that much more wonderful. Even though majority of the performers sang in English, there was one blues artist who sang in Italian. It was really beautiful!
The majority of the crowd was older but there were some younger Italians in attendance. Overall it was a wonderful night and we didn’t leave until the very end.
