Off again by 9 to walk to the Vatican (hardly anybody on the Spanish Steps this morning), arriving in time to be part of the Pope’s weekly Wednesday morning blessing. Just us and about 20,000 other people (my count, but that’s why there is nobody on the Spanish Steps), so I don’t think he was talking to me personally. In fact he was just a small white dot on the podium, so I doubt he will even recognize me when we next meet.
There was lots of other entertainment going on in the crowd though – a wonderful Polish girls folk dance troupe, and a very good Polish kids choir. The Pope did well for an old guy – he hung around for a special guest meet-and-greet, and a front row drive by lasting until almost noon.
A guard suggested St Peters would open around 12:30, so when we saw people walking in on the other side of the square we ambled over there, arriving just as they closed off that entrance. It looked like the new entrance was further down the barricades, so we headed that way. As we neared it, they opened the floodgates and herds of people from two other entrances began RUNNING toward our entrance. It was like a near riot. A policeman was shouting “Form a line!”. Of course a Latin line is 20 people wide, and as well, in a Latin line the edges move far faster than the center, due to “creepage”. As such we were now about 200th in line. The “line” went through airport style security scanners, our third of the day. People ahead of me were turned back because their wrist watches set off the body scanners.
Anyhow we finally got into St Peters, and it is a truly magnificent place. It seemed to absorb those hoards of people and still have space. The scale is astounding. It is amazing what centuries of tithing can do. The huge 29 m high baldachin over the altar is cast from brass pinched from the roof of the Pantheon, so it is not all donations.
One of the sights to see is Michelangeo’s pieta, a personal goal of mine, even if behind the bullet proof glass. It is small compared to the numerous huge overpowering marble statues of previous Popes, monuments to their egos.
By 2 we had been on our feet long enough, and it was time for pizza and beer, and back to the convent for a rest.
About 6 there was an hour of continuous helicopter movement overhead, possibly related to the Liverpool – Rome soccer match that the city has been bracing for. Even the fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps, miles from the soccer stadium, has barricades around it.
Seen on the internet: “because for 1600 years, building churches is what Rome did.”
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