So mum wanted to go to Rome and Vatican since the longest time. You know, being Catholic and stuff. So like all of our itineraries, I planned everything myself. I would usually ask mum for her feedback, like what she'd really like to see, or Jessy what she'd really like to experience. Mum said Rome and Vatican and Jessy said food and also Vatican.
While I was sorting out our itinerary, we don't usually follow the itinerary through and through, there are days when we completely skip the entire thing, and because I am usually the ONLY person who knows exactly what we've planned - both of them wouldn't be able to tell if we had missed anything 🙊🙈🙉
So anyway, we were trying to decide when to go to Vatican, which was supposed to be after Venice. Look, this is crucial because we're buying the tickets online, tip: you should always buy the tickets online, the queue can be a bitch, so any purchases made online are non-refundable and just a matter of claiming it via the kiosk/ counter. So long as you don't change your mind or any shitty things happen on that day you're supposed to go - all should be good.
So we were like, should we go Thursday? or Friday? Or maybe Wednesday, the day after? I usually like to go to all the must see sights the earliest or soonest because I try not to jinx anything that might. So bla bla bla, after a heated but quick discussion, we decided to go to Vatican on that week's Wednesday.
When the day finally came, we looked at the weather and was told to expect light drizzles. There were some clouds, but not drizzles really. Mum is always with her scarves so all good.
Took the bus to the train station, la di da. Beautiful day quite frankly. I'm always with my map, for someone as blur as me, when it comes to travels, I'm quite savvy with my map, soooooo you can give me the benefit of the doubt yes.
By the time we arrive at the train station though...................................................................
Holy Vatican, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE.
We were shocked, I mean I didn't know what to expect, by armies of people going in and out of the station and trains like ants on missions. Our eyes were roving everywhere, looking at everyone, in shocked. Most of them are tourists I reckon, they've got cameras, jackets, scarves. I was busy figuring out the ways to reach Vatican via the terminal, reading the map and stuff, but people kept pushing and shoving me everywhere I couldn't focus and stand still!! Okay *EXHALE* NEVERMIND, going to a holy place, HOLY MIND THEN. Told mum to stay put at one place.
Mum already is having shifty crazy anxiety panic eyes by now. Jessy by her side.
Mum's anxiety is like +100% by now. She kept raising her voice, ISN'T IT THIS ROAD? WHY SO MANY PEOPLE GO THERE? MUST BE THAT WAY? FLINCH FLINCH.
As usual, to keep myself sane, I HAD to ignore mum.
After putting my foot down, and asking mum and Jessy to follow MY LEAD we eventually queued up............................
I mean, that's what we basically did. We were so shocked looking at the crowd, we basically just stood there...................in the queue. We couldn't move. We don't know how to move. Watching everyone ran into the trains, PUSHED EVERYONE INTO THE TRAIN. I'm like, how THE F am I gonna bring my 61 year old mum in to this?!
By this time, no Hail Mary could calm me down. I even contemplate taking a cab from Rome to Vatican, like it didn't matter anymore.
But the reality was, it's expensive and we have go through this crowd whether we like it or not. After possibly the 5th train that we let go, we finally had the balls to barge in. Myself and Jessy had to start pushing people in so that mum would be able to slide in and follow our lead.
By this time, mum had already closed her eyes to calm her down 😅😅
Once in, we just slide into the empty cracks of the area, which barely fit 3 stumps like us, and stood like some piece of puzzles in a jigsaw. We couldn't move. There were no other options, I mean we were sandwiched by really tall people or by really bulky windbreakers.
Most people's stop is the Vatican... which is Roma San Pietro.
It's almost 9am by the time we arrive with the sandwich of other people. I could finally exhale. Again. I told mum and Jessy to stay calm and follow my lead... I couldn't believe we couldn't figure out the ways to the St Peter Basilica (the most famous holy place in Vatican) despite the throngs of people.. It felt like people were walking on all sorts of direction for me to figure out exactly where people were going.
WTF not that easy ka. Okay never mind, holy place, holy mind. After finally figuring out where most of the bulk were actually going, we finally got the jive to head to the direction of St Peter Basilica. Walk, walk, walk.
By the time arrive, there was a MASSIVE queue. Was it always like this, I wondered. By the time we finally manage to get into St Peter.... we were already sorted into barricades, it's like people were queueing to see something...
What's going on, clueless. How come most photos show an empty piazza?? And this is full??
We wandered around trying to find ways to go into the Basilica, without truly knowing.
THAT, THAT WAS POPE'S DAY OUT.
Whaaaaat. Knowing absolutely nothing about it, and had no intentions to during our planning it was super luck that we chose to come to Vatican on Pope's day out! 💘💘
Mum couldn't believe our wild guess / luck that she kept asking me, really ah? Got Pope?
I told her yea 😄, and to settle down at one corner to finally catch Pope Francis and go through his service. AWESOME
Eventually Pope Francis came out waving hands to the crowd, saw him kissed some children, and then took centre stage to run through the service. The theme of his sermon was humility. Great stuff, and I loved it truly.
I must say it was pretty awesome. To accidentally choose a day date to go to Vatican to have the Pope come out! So learn from us, every Wednesday by 8.30am onwards!
*waves* Hi Pope! 🙌🙏😀
Thank you for always being nice!!
Read more of my Italy Posts:
A day's out in Venice in Spring / Venice
Dining in Rome and Venice
Rome by Foot
Airbnb at Venice
Cost of Self planned 10 days / 9 nights - Venice & Rome
That day we saw the Pope by chance
Love,
Jacqueline Rowena @ Jacqkie.
While I was sorting out our itinerary, we don't usually follow the itinerary through and through, there are days when we completely skip the entire thing, and because I am usually the ONLY person who knows exactly what we've planned - both of them wouldn't be able to tell if we had missed anything 🙊🙈🙉
So anyway, we were trying to decide when to go to Vatican, which was supposed to be after Venice. Look, this is crucial because we're buying the tickets online, tip: you should always buy the tickets online, the queue can be a bitch, so any purchases made online are non-refundable and just a matter of claiming it via the kiosk/ counter. So long as you don't change your mind or any shitty things happen on that day you're supposed to go - all should be good.
So we were like, should we go Thursday? or Friday? Or maybe Wednesday, the day after? I usually like to go to all the must see sights the earliest or soonest because I try not to jinx anything that might. So bla bla bla, after a heated but quick discussion, we decided to go to Vatican on that week's Wednesday.
When the day finally came, we looked at the weather and was told to expect light drizzles. There were some clouds, but not drizzles really. Mum is always with her scarves so all good.
Took the bus to the train station, la di da. Beautiful day quite frankly. I'm always with my map, for someone as blur as me, when it comes to travels, I'm quite savvy with my map, soooooo you can give me the benefit of the doubt yes.
By the time we arrive at the train station though...................................................................
Holy Vatican, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE.
We were shocked, I mean I didn't know what to expect, by armies of people going in and out of the station and trains like ants on missions. Our eyes were roving everywhere, looking at everyone, in shocked. Most of them are tourists I reckon, they've got cameras, jackets, scarves. I was busy figuring out the ways to reach Vatican via the terminal, reading the map and stuff, but people kept pushing and shoving me everywhere I couldn't focus and stand still!! Okay *EXHALE* NEVERMIND, going to a holy place, HOLY MIND THEN. Told mum to stay put at one place.
Mum already is having shifty crazy anxiety panic eyes by now. Jessy by her side.
Mum's anxiety is like +100% by now. She kept raising her voice, ISN'T IT THIS ROAD? WHY SO MANY PEOPLE GO THERE? MUST BE THAT WAY? FLINCH FLINCH.
As usual, to keep myself sane, I HAD to ignore mum.
After putting my foot down, and asking mum and Jessy to follow MY LEAD we eventually queued up............................
I mean, that's what we basically did. We were so shocked looking at the crowd, we basically just stood there...................in the queue. We couldn't move. We don't know how to move. Watching everyone ran into the trains, PUSHED EVERYONE INTO THE TRAIN. I'm like, how THE F am I gonna bring my 61 year old mum in to this?!
By this time, no Hail Mary could calm me down. I even contemplate taking a cab from Rome to Vatican, like it didn't matter anymore.
But the reality was, it's expensive and we have go through this crowd whether we like it or not. After possibly the 5th train that we let go, we finally had the balls to barge in. Myself and Jessy had to start pushing people in so that mum would be able to slide in and follow our lead.
By this time, mum had already closed her eyes to calm her down 😅😅
Once in, we just slide into the empty cracks of the area, which barely fit 3 stumps like us, and stood like some piece of puzzles in a jigsaw. We couldn't move. There were no other options, I mean we were sandwiched by really tall people or by really bulky windbreakers.
Most people's stop is the Vatican... which is Roma San Pietro.
It's almost 9am by the time we arrive with the sandwich of other people. I could finally exhale. Again. I told mum and Jessy to stay calm and follow my lead... I couldn't believe we couldn't figure out the ways to the St Peter Basilica (the most famous holy place in Vatican) despite the throngs of people.. It felt like people were walking on all sorts of direction for me to figure out exactly where people were going.
WTF not that easy ka. Okay never mind, holy place, holy mind. After finally figuring out where most of the bulk were actually going, we finally got the jive to head to the direction of St Peter Basilica. Walk, walk, walk.
By the time arrive, there was a MASSIVE queue. Was it always like this, I wondered. By the time we finally manage to get into St Peter.... we were already sorted into barricades, it's like people were queueing to see something...
What's going on, clueless. How come most photos show an empty piazza?? And this is full??
We wandered around trying to find ways to go into the Basilica, without truly knowing.
THAT, THAT WAS POPE'S DAY OUT.
Whaaaaat. Knowing absolutely nothing about it, and had no intentions to during our planning it was super luck that we chose to come to Vatican on Pope's day out! 💘💘
Mum couldn't believe our wild guess / luck that she kept asking me, really ah? Got Pope?
I told her yea 😄, and to settle down at one corner to finally catch Pope Francis and go through his service. AWESOME
Eventually Pope Francis came out waving hands to the crowd, saw him kissed some children, and then took centre stage to run through the service. The theme of his sermon was humility. Great stuff, and I loved it truly.
I must say it was pretty awesome. To accidentally choose a day date to go to Vatican to have the Pope come out! So learn from us, every Wednesday by 8.30am onwards!
*waves* Hi Pope! 🙌🙏😀
Thank you for always being nice!!
Read more of my Italy Posts:
A day's out in Venice in Spring / Venice
Dining in Rome and Venice
Rome by Foot
Airbnb at Venice
Cost of Self planned 10 days / 9 nights - Venice & Rome
That day we saw the Pope by chance
Love,
Jacqueline Rowena @ Jacqkie.
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