In the early '70, I spent 3 1/2 years in Italy when my first husband was stationed there.  We had a great time living in a rural area outside Brindisi.  We visited Florence several times, Naples a few times, and a bunch of places once or twice.  We didn't go to Venice because there had been a bad flood, and they hadn't finished cleaning up the mess; friends warned us not to go unless we liked the smell of sewage.  We had never been to Rome either, for no partiicular reason.

About 2 weeks before we came back to the US, we figured we couldn't really spend all that time in Italy without going to Rome, so we hopped on a train with a Catholic friend.  When we got there, Rome was REALLY crowded.  Our friend Keith said, "Oh, yeah I forgot it was Holy Week."  Every Catholic who could get there was there.

Even though I'm an atheist, I decided to go to the Vatican on Wednesday when the Pope gave a public audience, His health permitting, at the new auditorium.  The hotel clerk advised me to get there plenty early and to take any souvenirs I wanted Him to bless (That sounded pretty tacky to me, but I bought a couple wooden figurines for friends back home.) 

At 4:00 Wednesday morning, I walked over to St. Peter's Square; I was the first person there.  I had to catch a taxi to the train station to buy tickets for Thursday evening. though.  Regular taxis weren't running that early, so I walked over to the horse taxis and told the drivers I just wanted to go to the railroad station and back.  One driver said he could take me and go to 23 tourist sights along the way for only so many thousand lire.  I said I was in a hurry and didn't want to see any tourist sights.  The second driver said he could take and see 17 sights for a few thousand lire less.  Finally, the fifth driver said he could go there and back for what I considered a reasonable price.

I got to the train station just in time to get three of the few remaining tickets, and it was on a local train.  By the time I got out, the taxi was still there, as I had asked him to wait.  When we got back to St. Peter's, a fair-sized crowd was gathering, and there were still 2 1/2 hours until the doors would open.

Let me tell you a little about the horse taxi trip.  Even at that early hour, traffic was already heavy.  The horse seemed to need little or no instructions from the driver.  She knew whether stoplights were red or green.  She didn't like to be behind busses, trucks, or other vehicles with too much axhaust.  She would speed up and split lanes to get around them.  The trip took a lot less time than it would have in a regular taxi.  I was very impressed.  It was well worth the extra money.

By the time the doors of the auditorium opened, the crowd was huge.  There were no chairs in the auditorium, just a sloping concrete floor.  It was so crowded I could hardly beathe, but if I had fainted, I wouldn't have fallen down.  The people around me would have held me up.  A lot of people were carring souvenirs:  as many crucifixes as they could possibly carry and rosariea hanging from their arms from wrist to shoulder a few layers thick and so many around their necks I couldn't see how they could beathe or get oxygen to their brains.  I asked a woman next to me why, and she said she owned a souvenir shop.  Her merchandise sold faster and for more money if she could say they had been blessed by bhe Popel

A bunch of Cardinals came down the center aisle and sat in chairs on the platform in the front, on either side of the podium/pulpit.  A few minutes later, a procession including bearers carried Pope Paul VI in what looked like a throne on their shoulders, came down the center aisle with much pomp and ceremony. He was a tiny, ancient little man dressed in splendor.  He exited the throne and proceded to the pulpit.

There was an opening benediction by one of the Cardinals, and then Pope Paul VI delivered His speech in Latin, Italian, English, and a few other languages.  When He was finished, several Cardinals got up and translated it into other languages.  When they were finished, the Pope blessed the crowd.  Then He asked us to hold up any souvenirs we had, and He blessed them too.  He then got back in the throne that had been carried around front and exited, with His procession and more pomp and ceremony, back up the center aisle, followed by the Cardinals.

After the whole procession had exited, the croud exited through a handful of doors.  I went through one of the front side doors and, from there, along a walk that went through an arbor covered with beautirul, fragrant wisteria and back out to the square.  I walked back to our hotel feeling tired but very impressed. 

The next day went to see the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel--a rather austere shoebox shaped room displaying and dedicated to the gloriously painted walls and, most famously, the ceiling.  It was truly awe-inspiring.  Then we walked past the burial chambers of a lot of past popes that contained what looked like enough treasure to buy the world.  Then we walked a few blocks to the rather shabby neighborhood where our hotel was.

That evening we boarded our train back home.  We were surpried to find how different it was from the regular trains we used.  The cars had no windows but were open on the sides from about 3 feet up to the ceiling, except for posts holding up the top and decored with elaborate wrought iron.  The seats consisted of ornate benches situated around the walls.  In the center was a potbellied stove.  The train moved slowly, stopping what seemed like every 15 minutes at small villages, the middles of vinyards or meadows, or for anyone standing alongside tha track.  It took us forever to get back home, but it was interesting and scenic, although it would have been more scenic if had been in the daylight.

The trip was impressive and interesting in turns.  At least we did got to see Rome during our stay.  I don't think our families would have forgiven us if we hadn't.