Wednesday, August 1, 2001: The Pope - Rome, Italy

Frank here…

Quite a bit of memories where set today. More positive ones than negative ones.

The first was a bit of both, here's how it went. I got up early to be sure to find myself a bicycle box before going to see the pope. At 8:15am I was looking through the windows of a bicycle shop. I thought I saw someone inside, so I knocked on the locked door. A man came out, and five minutes later I was the proud new owner of a big bike box. Thank you! The story doesn't end though. I had a choice of bringing the box back to the hostal and leaving it there for the night or putting it into storage at the train station. According to the Lonely Planet guide, it cost 1,500 lire (60 cents) per item per day. The guide book was two years old so I thought that the storage might be a bit higher in cost, but still affordable. I wasn't totally sure if the hostal (which was very cramped) had any space for the box, so with plenty of time to walk to the train station then meet my Peruvian friends and get to the Vatican to see the Pope, I elected to store the box at the train station.

When I got there, I asked how much it would cost. They told me 25 per day which I automatically thought they meant 25 hundred lire, which would sound fair. Then they asked me for a deposit of 6000. I got all confused. Why would I have to give a deposit and why so much more than the daily cost. Then we clarified the issue. It would cost me 25000 lire per day, not 2500. Bummer. So I left without storing my box and looked for an empty hiding place somewhere in the station. I had no luck, not even after trying to sweet talk the cleaning woman.

I pondered for a while, weighed all my options and reluctantly took my box back to the storage and paid my 6000 lire. Unfortunately, I missed my meeting my Peruvian friends and had to rush to the Vatican to see the Pope. I was not totally sure of where to get off the bus, but my luck was great because I found myself sitting beside a nun. Ha! She knew where to get off. Funny thing is that we talked for about five minutes before I realized that she was a nun.

St. Peter's square was packed. My guess was that there were probably over 70,000 people there. More than 20,000 were young teenagers from all over Europe for a get together of an organization called CIM (something like Children Inter… Ministry). Up the stairs were a number of people. It was difficult to discern, but one of them was the man. Pope John Paul the Second. I had a much better look at him via the screens they had set up along the sides. It was like a concert.

Even though I no longer have much of a connection with the Pope or the Catholic church, I got a bit misty eyed at being in the presence of such a great and greatly known man. He spoke in many languages and was cheered when he spoke in the different languages of the countries where the children were visiting. In English I heard him encouraging people to develop and nurture a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Not only was the place crowded, but it was also hot. So hot that some people got hold of some hoses and sprayed water up into the air over a big group of people and nobody seemed to mind. Another interesting thing happened to me. I slowly wriggled my way up the crowd until I was maybe 60 metres from the Pope, then I came to a fence and leaned on the fence like everyone else. I am usually one who conforms to things like - "no climbing over the fence". After a lot of consternation, I finally got the nerve to climb the fence. Just after getting only one leg up, a teenager stopped me and told me that I was not supposed to do that. "Gracious!" I sheepishly let down my leg and stayed put.

From St Peter's square I walked down the wide Via Conciliazione and embarked on one of the many city tour buses. At one point I was the only one on the bus with the driver and tour guide. Cool! I had my own personalized guide, Sibilla who was also a singer but was too shy to sing on the bus. I saw so many awesome sites. There are too many to mention or remember them all; but some of the sites were Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza Venezia, Colosseo, Via Nazionale, and the Pantheon.

I got off at the ever-bustling train station and found a little internet spot for a short time, then I headed towards my hostel as I searched for a restaurant that accepted the coupons that I wanted to spend. I saw a cute sidewalk restaurant that had a sign posted that they accepted my coupons. Great! To be double sure about the coupons, I even asked the host. I sat and had a nice visit with a Japanese couple while I ate my canelloni and gelati.

I splurged. It was my last night in Rome and I had three coupons of 13900 lire each. Yahoo! So I racked up a 40,000 lire bill (about $18 US). It did not bother me that they charged me extra for the appetizer bread that they put on my table and for the tip that they took the liberty to calculate and round up. But it did bother me when they told me that they only got 27000 lire from me. They figured that the coupons were only 9000 each. I was sure that they were 13900. So, the discussions began. I told them that I already used one in the morning for 13900. The friend who gave them to me warned me about the possible misinterpretation. The manager insisted that he would not accept my coupons and that I use a credit card, but I would not because I wanted to use up the coupons because this was my last chance, also, I pointed to the sign to him and also mentioned about the acceptance of the coupons. So, I suggested that we phone the coupon company and find out. I took out my phone card but it was not accepted by the phone. Bummer.

In frustration, and not wanting to lose all the worth of the coupons, I settled with the manager to treat them as 9000 lire each and pay the rest in cash. I told him to enjoy some refreshments on me once he cashes in the coupons and gets the extra money. Whew, I left fuming. Not necessarily all because of the manager, but of the entire situation as well. It's funny at one point I asked him if he understood me and he replied indignantly and sarcastically that he did not because he came from a small country village in the mountains. I then clarified that I was not sure if I was speaking well enough.

I was walking towards my street, Via Napoleone with smoke coming out of my ears thinking, "I can't end my last night in Rome like this, maybe I will go to the Chinese restaurant and banter with the owners." And, to boot, the meal did not fill me up, which added to my frustration. As I walked along the road I came across an outdoor pub with about 15 English speaking people. I asked them if I could join them and they immediately pulled up a chair.

I was so glad to have met this group of Irish Scout Masters who had just finished a one week long, 100 kilometre challenge in the countryside of Italy. What started in frustration at the restaurant ended up with music and laughter until 4:00am. Thank you John and all the other great people who sang and whooped it up and pulled in other foreigners as they walked by. It grew to a very international group - Mexicans, Peruvians, Irish, Italians, Canadian, American, Czech and more. We sang many songs from each country and I joined in with my harmonica and gave them a taste of the blues as well.

It was quite easy for me to sleep that night.

-Even though you might take back something you said, the damage could already have been done.

-Frank Pollari