Religious Folk

What do you call a group of nuns wielding cameras? This is not a joke.

We wandered into some cathedral - the 'Virgin Mary seated in the Snow' or some such and down in the relic section where there is a very pious statue of his eminence the late Pope  I was suddenly confronted with these two coiffed and booted nuns who were rabbiting away to each-other whilst subtly pointing in my direction. Watching them out of the corner of my eye and trying not to laugh I was not in the least surprised when they suddenly handed me their cameras and requested photos of them with the stony Pope. Behind them came another 15 or so, again, all dressed very piously in their white habits but every one wielding a camera and clicking away at each-other posing with the huge marble pope kneeling in prayer. It was such a delightful sight, a cross between a group of small children and a gaggle of geese.

Since then I tried my darnedest to find equally impressive processions of monks or priests whilst delighting in the trickle of religious folk who swarm over Rome and the Vatican City. And I’ll admit, such a venture is not complete without the purchase of the one and only calendar of sexy cardinals: such a way to remember my excursion for 12 months to come…