How do you say tampon in Italian?

Author's Note: I originally published this blog posting on Oenoteca on September 28. I just love telling this story.
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Turns out I speak more Italian than I thought.

The man at the cafe just outside of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Rome was impressed that I asked "Vorrei una pizza Margherita" (or "I want a pizza with mozzarella and tomato"). I usually try to at least start off a conversation in the native language of a country I'm visiting.

He then went on to ask me where I was from. It always helps that the Rocky movie was filmed here. Everyone has seen the part when Rocky finishes his run from South Philadelphia by running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And we get treated with respect. Not like the man in the hotel restaurant in Rome who ordered a hamburger.

But I didn't know quite how to start the conversation with the housekeeping staff in the hotel when I needed a tampon. It was a little awkward. I started with words like "donne" (women) and tried to fit in some Spanish. I could deliver a baby or talk to you about your heart attack in Spanish. But not in Italian. At least I knew how to say my room number - "dieci ottantotto" - because when we returned from dinner, there they were. Two sanitary kits.