Nuns in floral frocks!

Last week saw fourteen of us celebrating the 'special' birthday' of one of our company in Rome. We had a superb time, and there are loads of things I could write about, with many highlights, from tossing our coins in the Trevi fountain, and visiting the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel to sipping cappuccino's in the sunshine at the Pantheon, but it is the little restaurant off one of the streets near the Pantheon that I want to tell you about! It was the birthday girls special dinner, and we all crowded into L'Eau Vive restaurant where the table was already laid and ready for us! There was an atmosphere of calm, warmth and friendliness, as we were greeted by nuns who seemed predominantly to come from the Far East and Africa, the language of the restaurant seeming to be mainly French. But these were nuns with no dreary habits! Instead the bright coloured floral dresses of their native homelands contrasting with the almost life-size simple white statue of Mary, which stood in the corner surrounded by flowers. Between the main course and the sweet, at about 9.00 p.m. we were each given a song sheet and invited to sing an Ave Maria to the accompaniment of a nun duo of guitar and bongos! There was also a verse of Happy Birthday and a garland of shells for the birthday girl. We have Ruth Gledhill to thank for this experience, one of our party having read about the restaurant in her weekend column.