"WHAT are you shower of disbelievers doing here, sure I never see any of you in church ... Have I any problems? Well now, I have about £70,000 worth of restoration work to be done on the church and ..." The speaker? Don Yincenzo, parish priest to Rome's ninth century Church of Santa Maria in Domnica, not far from the Coliseum. His comments were addressed to the centre left Senate candidate, Tana De Zuelueta, out on the campaign trail in his quartiere which comes within the boundary of a single seat constituency in central Rome.
The centre left coalition contesting next week's Italian general election is, of course, largely dominated by the ex communist Democratic Left (PDS). The man accompanying her around the neighbourhood this morning is an architect, Paolo Gelsomini, a lifelong PCI PDS militant. Years ago, he says, he would have never considered canvassing the parish priest. But much has changed in Italian politics. Even if the Italian Catholic church has officially taken a neutral stance, there is no doubt that many Catholics and priests feel that the ex communists have a greater commitment to social justice issues than the centre right coalition dominated by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi and the ex fascist Alleanza Nazionale.
The changing times are also reflected in the candidacy of Ms De Zuelueta, until one month ago the Rome correspondent for The Economist. Born in Bogota, Colombia, of mixed English and Spanish parentage, the Cambridge educated De Zuelueta seems an unlikely candidate to cross the divide between journalist and politician. Nearly six feet tall, soft spoken and retiring, she might seem better suited to a position of anonymous academia than to the cut and thrust of grassroots politics.
For in the brave, new post 1994 world of single seat Italian politics (until now, it was all proportional representation), electoral campaigning has more than ever become a matter of grassroots issues. The quartiere around the Coliseum is like many in central Rome, an area where past and present, motor car and ancient monument, shopkeeper and tourist share a difficult co habitation.
As Ms De Zuelueta does her electoral rounds, she is not questioned closely about her elegantly written views on the Italian economy, or on Italy's role in Europe, or on the type of constitutional changes she might like to propose with a view to guaranteeing stable government. At street level, problems are much more practical.
One woman tells architect Gelsomini and Ms De Zuelueta that she has just received a notification of sfratto - or eviction. Can the candidate do anything for her? Patiently and honestly, the election team expresses sympathy, but suggest they can do little.
Other locals ask what can be done about the chronic parking problems, the lack of public toilets for tourists, the lack of pedestrian. crossings ... Almost everyone is good humoured, and everywhere the candidate is received gracefully and politely. One woman, owner of a dry cleaning business, almost apologises when telling the candidate: "I don't know you. I know Paolo and I know some of the others but I don't know you and I'll have to take your election material and read it and make up my mind."
The election material states that Tana be Zuelueta is 44 years old, has two children (Giulia is 14, Tommasso nine) and is "not a professional politician but a citizen like you who wants to make her contribution to creating a more honest, just and efficient Italy".
Tana De Zuelueta is not, of course, a citizen quite like her constituents. For a start, Italian is not her native tongue and she is contesting these elections as a foreigner with Italian citizenship thanks to marriage.
Her decision to accept the invitation to contest this seat emerged naturally, she says, out of a series of contacts and communications she has had over the past two years with the centre left leader, Professor Romano Prodi. As Italy struggles desperately to emerge from the legacy of corrupt, quasi one party (Christian Democrat) state politics into an democracy of alternatives, she wants to make her contribution at this "very important moment for Italian democracy".
Her presence in these elections, however, also says something about the role of the foreign correspondent in Italy, at least the correspondent of a major international news organisation. As Italy has staggered from crisis to confusion and back to crisis in the last four years of post Cold War politics, the opinion of the authoritative foreign correspondent has been increasingly sought.
In the case of Tana De Zuelueta, this process (and her own ability and integrity) has made her a public personaggio, has earned her a period as news chief at the Videomusic TV channel and has now blasted her into the political arena.
She is the first to concede that her stay in that arena may be shortlived. She has taken on a very difficult constituency where her only opponent is outgoing Alleanza Nazionale Senator, Giulio Maceratini, a figure in national politics who claims to have the support of both shopkeepers and right wing church elements such as Communione e Liberazione.
The Economist, she says, has expressed no qualms about her decision to "take the field". On the contrary, some of her colleagues were "quite tickled" at the idea. However, she admits to a huge sense of relief that, if all goes wrong, she can still return to magazine work after the elections.