So, I went over to Italy some time ago. Mostly for the usual stuff, you know, the food, the history. Had this picture in my head about Italian nuns, probably cobbled together from old movies – you know, very quiet, gliding along, maybe a bit stern.
Ended up spending a good bit of time wandering around Rome. You see them there, the nuns. Couldn’t miss them near the big religious spots, but also just mixed in with everyone else on the streets. And that’s where things got a little different from my movie-fueled ideas.
What really struck me was how… normal they seemed. Wasn’t expecting that, exactly. I saw a couple of them deep in conversation on their cell phones – proper smartphones, looked like. Another time, I saw a pair having a right laugh together outside a bakery, just chatting like anyone else. They seemed busy, purposeful. Like they had errands to run, things to sort out.
- Remember seeing one helping some lost-looking tourists with directions near the Pantheon. Very down-to-earth.
- Spotted two younger nuns actually navigating the crazy traffic on electric scooters near Trastevere. That threw me for a loop.
- They weren’t all elderly either; saw nuns of all different ages going about their day.
Just regular people doing their thing
It wasn’t some big dramatic revelation, nothing like that. It just chipped away at the stereotype I’d carried around. You imagine this life completely cut off, all silence and prayer. And maybe for some, it is. But the ones I saw woven into the city fabric? They were just… people. Living their lives, doing their jobs, just happened to be wearing habits.
It stuck with me, you know? How you build up these images. Seeing them waiting for the bus or tapping away on a phone made them seem less like characters and more like, well, neighbours. It’s funny the small observations you make when you’re just walking around somewhere new. Anyway, that was my little takeaway regarding the Italian nuns I saw. Just sharing what I observed.
