Friday, June 27, 2025

Back to that long strange trip part 4

 

I was thinking about writing a quick recap on the Dallas sports scene yet the only real item to talk about is the NBA draft and that horse has been beat to death for the moment. Honestly I don’t know anything about how the Cowboys will do; I am a casual fan of the Rangers and the Stars-, keep wanting to follow FC Dallas, but don’t so not much else to discuss for the moment so let’s get back into that drivers seat and discuss driving in Europe some more.

 

I have not been following the direct timeline and will try and get back onto some path here now. Mainly because the next part of the trip once we drove through France and northern Italy was Rome or more specifically Vatican City.

We wanted to see Rome more, yet due to some missed and rescheduled tours we definitely wanted to take we lost about a full day of other sight seeing. I regret and don’t regret not seeing Rome because in some ways we did see a good chunk of what Rome may be like on a daily basis just didn’t see the important tourist attractions.

Like I mentioned in a previous post we booked a hotel within walking distance of the Vatican because that was important to us. And we just couldn’t get our acts together to enjoy what we booked in advance for tours, yet we did see everything we scheduled, not just at the originally scheduled time.

First we were tour the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and were late. Actually we were not late, we were walking up the street to get to the meeting point and my wife got a call from the tour guide. We told her we were walking yet she acted like she couldn’t hear us and by the time we climbed the steps that tour was gone. I called and they said they weren’t going to give us a refund, but I am still going to fight it. Like I said we were walking up the street so with a few minutes to spare, yet apparently the tours have to start on time. We would have made it if she had given us directions to the starting point, but she “couldn’t hear us” and hung up.

We arrived at the meeting spot and there were about ten or more tour guides waiting on their groups, so you truly have to be there a few minutes early yet she should have guided us. And once we realized none of the groups waiting were ours we were late.

So I threw a fit with someone on the phone and they were adamant about us having to pay again to reschedule and it would be a few days. No refunds, seriously though that is a racket, maybe a rebooking fee or something, but when you pay $300 plus they should help you out.

Anyway apparently this must happen quite often since there were tour companies that could book a similar tour right there on the spot. I spent a couple hundred more and took the tour about two hours later. In the interim the better half and I sat down and had our first Rome meal. We ate at a restaurant about two blocks away from the tour entrance area, well had snacks and a glass of wine. We were able to calm down and gather ourselves which was good since it helped us to better enjoy the tour we did take. It was a 2 and a half hour tour so no where near enough time to really enjoy the museum, however we took enormous amounts of pictures and did spend some time in the Sistine Chapel which is as impressive as you have heard if you have not seen.

Our tour guide had shown us some of the info about the Sistine Chapel at the beginning of the tour so we were able to really breakdown what we were looking at while we were there.

And that was the end of that tour. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the Vatican area or basically St Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s square. The Square is just what you see on TV basically. The Basilica, well just like the museum and the Sistine Chapel, you need to go to believe.

We spent three hours in the Basilica, first touring the entire breadth of the building, going from one chapel to the other, looking at the paintings and the sculptures, just marveling at everything we saw. It was one of the main reasons we went to Rome and no disappoint.

Occasionally I touch on the fact I am Catholic and here I am going to say I am a practicing Catholic and nowadays you have to make that distinction sometimes. And the reason I say that is because I have confession stories, which on the surface may not sound good.

Anyway confession is offered in the Basilica so my wife and I decided we would go. We had missed Mass in our travels, (Salamanca was early on Saturday so daily Mass) and what ever indiscretions we needed to get off our chests we decided to take the opportunity and go to confession. They offer confession in multiple languages so it is easy for many to go while there.

We wait for our turn and I go into the confessional. I am speaking to the Priest as I confess and he asks about my daily prayer life so I touch on it a bit and mentioned my wife and I try to say a rosary most nights before going to bed. He gets excited and says come with me. So here I am coming out of the confessional with a Priest and I have to be honest if he was five feet tall I would have to check it. I am just over 6 feet. So the Priest is marching me across the Basilica floor and cuts me through some staunches so I can get to where they are about to pray the rosary for the day. And then there is Mass. This happens every day yet I do not think you see to many times Priests perp walking someone from the Confessional. I let the Priest know I needed to get my wife since she was in confession also. So we walked back together and he goes back to the confessional. And yes there was a line all staring at us when we left and when we came back. I found my wife and we wandered over to where the Rosary and the Mass were to be held. For some reason the Rosary didn’t happen, yet we did get to attend Mass. And yes as a Catholic I feel special for it. And I know pride is a sin you need to go to confession.

After Mass we had been at the Vatican for close to ten hours so we were ready to go back. We stopped on the way back to the hotel for dinner. And felt like we were in Rome, walking along the streets, looking at menus on the sidewalk, looking in the shops, and finally picked a place and had an enjoyable meal. Got back to the hotel and needed to get to bed since the next day was going to be busy.

So now it is Wednesday. We have tickets to the Papal Audience. And we are very excited. It is already hot and there is a long line to enter. We finally get to the entrance, have our bags checked, we had to give up a water bottle since it was metal which my wife misses. They said we could come back at the end of the day to pick up, yet by the time we got back it was 7 in the evening and all the items that were being put aside while we entered were long gone.

We enter the Square and try to find seats hopefully along the route Popes take through the crowd before the audience begins. My wife starts looking around and saying we should move up closer. I am loath to start changing seats because it is crowded and the crowd is growing by the minute. I finally give in and walk up to the front of our section and try to get a guard’s attention. He ignores me. I am a bit frustrated as helps woman after woman. Finally I get him to come to me and I ask if my tickets can get us in the section in front of us. He demeanor changed some when he saw our tickets. He pointed over to the front yet to one specific side. I do not speak Italian (I played like I spoke four languages on our trip lol) so I wasn’t sure exactly what he was trying to tell me to do. So I go to another guard and this time it was a Swiss Guard and there is a difference in who is who at the Vatican and the Swiss Guard have more authority than pretty much everyone else. And what is amazing is they are the nicest in general with dealing with the public that I saw. Very polite and helpful compared to just about every other guard, police,  employee etc… but they are also the ones you don’t get into with it either.

The Swiss Guard at the section entrance I spoke to was immediately telling me to go to the front so I could be on time. I told him I needed to get my wife . I got her we went back to him and at this point, he opened the rope and let us through pointing down the way to the other side. We got there and were immediately ushered to the front so we thought we were going to the front section, another guard then another Swiss guard lets us through each section. We were starting to feel somewhat taken aback. As soon as I showed my ticket they let us go by their gate or rope and pointed to go further up. Before we could catch our bearings we were walking up the steps to the I guess you call it the stage area or basically the level the Pope sits on and we were just off to his side. Needless to say my wife and I sat there for a few minutes just trying to figure out how we got from more than half way back in the square to a stone’s throw to the Pope. We weren’t right next to him those seats were reserved, yet we were close enough where you could make out the details on his face pretty much.

It was hot, it was a bit humid maybe, yet it was wonderful to be able to sit up close and watch and listen to the Pope on this Wednesday morning. We were there for a few hours, and the last one was waiting and hoping he would walk by. He spent most of his time after the audience blessing a whole of host of recently married couples that were on the other side, so by the time he was done and spoken to a few others he walked by our section and waived. Many of the remaining people like us were trying to get him to stop by, yet he had been out there for hours now so he waved at everyone while walking to the vehicle and left. Still it was exhilarating and we felt very blessed to be seated so close.

The stories continue yet this post is going a bit long again. I will pick up in Wednesday afternoon and it was frustrating and we missed another tour because we could never find the meeting spot at all. Finally though and the Swiss Guards are involved again and this story just reinforces they are spectacular in their interactions when you work with them.  We managed to find where we needed to be and by some miracle we get this tour rescheduled which apparently is no easy feat. We toured the area around the Square, shopped, ate ice cream, stood in a long line for the Jubilee information at the office there and wasted some time trying to figure out where we messed up in finding the tour info. Also another great dinner on the streets of Rome walking back to the hotel.

Next up Thursday morning, more lateness, more weirdness, more helpful Swiss Guards, and a strange meeting.

Cheers

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