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Mum's Gone To …

Travel tales of an empty nester
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Home  >  Blog  >  The Gallery – 36

The Gallery – 36

Trish Burgess Posted on10/03/201007/04/2016 The gallery 23 Comments

How many nuns can you fit on a zebra crossing? 36 and counting, if you happen to be in Rome.
The theme for Tara’s ‘The Gallery’ this week is a number and this photo immediately came to mind. I took it when we visited Italy’s capital a few years ago. Not a technically good photo: a point and shoot through the window of the Hotel Forty Seven (ooh another number) but one that never fails to make me smile. 
We adored Rome (must do a Mum’s Gone to post about it actually)  but I was fearful of crossing the roads on account of the sadistic drivers who paid no heed to pedestrians. After seeing this glorious sight I made a note to only cross roads when under the protection of nuns or priests: the cars always stopped for them.
The photo also takes me back to my childhood. My secondary school was a Catholic Convent Grammar school so a fair few of the teachers were nuns. I have fond memories of our form teacher with her jolly sayings, “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well” and one nun who had a very stubbly beard. Very naive girls that we were, we had no understanding of the poor woman’s probable hormonal imbalance and were convinced it was a man in drag. She played the guitar very well, nonetheless…

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23 Comments

  1. Nova Reply
    10/03/2010 at 7:30 am

    What a fantastic photo, I've never been to Rome but it's a place I'd like to visit.

  2. Very Bored in Catalunya Reply
    10/03/2010 at 8:14 am

    Rome is on my to do list as well. Fab picture and lovely memories. xx

  3. Hayley Reply
    10/03/2010 at 8:20 am

    Love that photo! I have never been to italy, its the one place I am DESPERATE to visit.

    Love the point and shoot aspect of the photo too, its great 😀

  4. Brighton Mum-Teenage Angst Reply
    10/03/2010 at 8:32 am

    I actually started counting them! What am I doing?!? Great photo & great tip. If/when I go to Rome will remember..Only cross the road under cover of nuns…

  5. Brit in Bosnia / Fraught Mummy Reply
    10/03/2010 at 8:49 am

    I need to find me some nuns round here to help me cross the road. This photo did make me smile! Thanks xx

  6. MrsW Reply
    10/03/2010 at 9:19 am

    lol! Is that why they make the crossings so wide? To accommodate the Nuns who Lunch 🙂

    I am resisting the urge to count them.

    I am resisting….

  7. The Dotterel Reply
    10/03/2010 at 9:34 am

    That nun… you know, the only at your school. Not Sister Josephine, was it?

  8. Tara@Sticky Fingers Reply
    10/03/2010 at 9:34 am

    Fabulous! I too started counting them then saw MrsW and BMTA comments so resisted. . . .
    But really, what a fabulous sight. Only in rome I guess

  9. Kath@Parklover Reply
    10/03/2010 at 10:15 am

    Great photo! Bet the trafic stopped for them. Rome is definitely on my "to do" list.

  10. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    10/03/2010 at 12:34 pm

    Thanks for your great comments. Don't count too closely…I reckon on 36 nuns (on and off the crossing) with a handful of non-nuns, making about 42 in total!

    The Dotterel – blimey, a Jake Thackray fan! I've just put my old CD on: "Oh Sister Josephine, what a bloody funny nun you are!".

  11. muummmmeeeeee...... Reply
    10/03/2010 at 12:40 pm

    No car was ever not going to stop at that crossing…can you imagine the driver's journey to hell for wiping out that lot!

  12. Heather Reply
    10/03/2010 at 1:16 pm

    a drag guitar playing nun – sounds wonderfully exotic to me and my boring high school experiences.

  13. marisworld Reply
    10/03/2010 at 1:38 pm

    I adore Rome and I love your photo.
    As for the drivers, they really couldn't have a run over nun on their conscience could they? They'd have their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, neighbours and the pope on their backs!
    Doesn't bare thinking about.

  14. CaraFreckles Reply
    10/03/2010 at 1:57 pm

    This reminded me of when we had a child free weekend in Rome a few years ago. We joked how it was like a huge Stag/Hen do in Blackpool at times, with everyone dressed as nuns & priests. You would feel a lot safer crossing with all those nuns though wouldn't you. I wonder what the collective term is for a group of nuns?

  15. Readily A Parent Reply
    10/03/2010 at 3:44 pm

    Apparently it's a "superfluity" – according to the dictionary of collective nouns and group terms http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2505301511.html
    I always thought it would be a flock.
    A flock of frocked nuns . . .
    I thought only a non-Catholic would come up with that term for a group of nuns, but looks like it was a Catholic (maybe a bitter one?) as it comes from the Book of St. Alban's, the majority of which has been attributed to an English Nun.
    I just love looking up obscure facts – can you tell.
    Meanwhile, lovely photo and I too would cross with the nuns!

  16. Jo Beaufoix Reply
    10/03/2010 at 6:29 pm

    What a fab photo. And yep, crossing with the nuns sounds very wise. My parents are off to Rome this weekend. I will pass on the advice. ;D

  17. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    10/03/2010 at 6:41 pm

    Mummeee and marisworld – eternity in purgatory for nun-running-over offences

    Heather – something surreal about a hirsuit guitar player in a habit playing Kum ba Yah!

    Carafreckles – haha! You're spot on: it does look like fancy dress.

    Readily as a parent – "Superfluity" indeed? Didn't know that. Thank you so much for the references. Brilliant!

    Jo – can I come with them? They will love it: history,culture and fab food all in one city.

  18. Claire Reply
    10/03/2010 at 7:15 pm

    Oooh I wasn't keen on Rome but love your pic 🙂

  19. make do mum Reply
    10/03/2010 at 9:14 pm

    Great photo – I like the rebel nun near the front wearing a denim jacket!

  20. Barbara Reply
    11/03/2010 at 1:39 pm

    Great shot. I've been to Sorrento and would have loved it had I not been 6 months into a ghastly pregnancy and trailing round a poorly as soon as we got there toddler.

    Maybe we should try Rome.

  21. Adrenalynn Reply
    11/03/2010 at 8:30 pm

    This is a fabulous photo! It's so ordinary – and yet absolutely not!

  22. MadameSmokinGun Reply
    12/03/2010 at 12:30 am

    Oh My God all those nuns in one spot in the middle of the road! How many points for that? I would have sped up. THAT's for making me wipe my bum with tiny squares of newspaper at Brownies you evil psychos!!! It's what FIAT was founded for.

  23. Crystal Jigsaw Reply
    12/03/2010 at 9:28 pm

    Yes it is a good photo, and a lovely place to visit, not that I have been!

    CJ xx

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