nuova salaria retreat

It's sunny today, with a pale blue sky. Air rich with birdsong and breath of pine trees outside my window. I'm listening to the soundtrack from Hip-hop Colony, the newly-released documentary on Kenya's hip-hop scene.

I'm at the convent of the Consolata Sisters, in the Quartiere Nuova Salaria, a far-flung outlying suburb North-east of Rome. Nuova Salaria means, literally, "new wages." I haven't had a chance to confirm it yet, but I'll bet this neighbourhood began as housing for new workers flocking to Rome after World War II.

Pina found Suore Della Consolata for me through friends of hers, radical activist nuns. Over Easter weekend, affordable accomodation in the center of Rome is a "dream on" proposition. So at 29 euros a night, my small simple room here is a find. It's perfect for an end-of-tour retreat. There's a 10.30pm curfew, so no temptation to stay out late. Silence, apart from birdsong and distant traffic. Wireless internet access. Long bus ride into the centre of Rome, which kills the temptation to go roaming rather than stay put and work. Just down the road, a cafe/gelateria, a frutteria, a trattoria, 3 hair and beauty salons (!!), a few other small shops.

Of the two nuns I've met so far, one spent 25 years in Kenya. The other, 20 years in Somalia. There are paintings on the walls that could come straight off the shelves of art and curio stalls in Nairobi - huts, beach scenes, intricately plaited head of an African woman.

This is not a 5-star hotel, said Sorella Lorenzilla (who was in Kenya), when she showed me my room last night.

I did my Standard Seven year at Consolata Primary School in Westlands, Nairobi. It makes me smile, yet feels in no way strange, that decades later, I'm wrapping up a performance tour of Italy in a Consolata convent.