Men (and Women) of God

One of the first thing to strike you in Rome, is just how many priests and nuns you see everywhere. Young and old, of any race, any age and wearing any imaginable colour (well, any imaginable grim colour).
There are HEAPS of them.
They are also very well respected, especially the nuns. They are the only thing that would make an Italian driver stop and give way. Red lights are only recommendations, but a nun - a nun can cross the road anywhere, anytime.
And Rome's men and women of God are different than the priests you see back home. Back home you see priests (on the rare occasion that you actually do see one) pretty much on their way to church or on their way back. That's about it.
Here they are all over the place.
Eating a slice of pizza in some hole-in-the-wall pizzeria. Slurping spaghetti at a restaurant... Going out at night in a pair of Armani Exchange Jeans (where do priests go when they go out??)
There's this one priest who seems to have a bit of a... ummm.... problem. I have been spotting him at this one bar pretty much all night every night, always with a half empty bottle of cheap red.
And if you ever wondered where priests buy their clothes, you obviously never been to Rome. They have priest shops here with everything – from the fancy collars to a myriad of accessories, to pretty flashy socks. Not sure why, but priest socks are very vibrant – red and purple!
But my favourites are the Roman nuns. Especially the ones that you see around street corners having a quick smoke before they have to go back to class (or whereever it is that nuns spend their time). You can just imagine their gossip... Who said what to whom and who is behaving like a tart at class... Love it.