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Coincidentally was in Europe for the Canonizations last weekend, this was not our intent, however as we made all our reservations across this continent it just worked out that way. We arrived Sat. evening, after taking the train from Paris. Some observations:
Rome was mobbed with "pilgrims" from all over the world..
Was not aware of the whole concept of nationalism and Catholicism, when we arrived we figured that we would go to the Colosseum as the horde would be focused on the Canonization, wrong.. on the way to the Forum, there were huge TV's set up along the way with many folks who had traveled to Rome for this event. There are quite a few Polish folks waving their flags, wearing their hats and signs all along the way. This pretty much continued up to Thursday, when we left, wherever we went there will these folks many dressed in folk costumes very proud of what had occurred. Saw quite a few Polish Folks crying during the mass, many had camped out all night to get close to the TV screens.
We found out after we reserved everything about the canonizations, so we felt it would be best to book a "tour" for the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters, it sucked.. a caveat was that everything was extremely crowded, but the tour leader was more of an art historian and did not know the function of the bldg. that housed the Vatican Museum or even St. Peter's. When we got to St. Peter's she tried to push us quickly through the church, past the "Pieta"... and we had had it, so we turned in our listening devices and ventured on our own. Only to be hastened by Vatican employees to move along. F.. them this was "bucket list" trip, so we took our time and took a lot of pix.
The police/military presence was obvious and heavy, apparently there had been some "Austerity" protests and they were very prepared to avoid anything "stepping off" as they did not want to be embarrassed in front of all of the visitors.
We left on Thursday AM, and there were still hordes of pilgrims present, still waving flags.. it was less crowded on Thursday, later we figured out it was May Day... Duh!!!
Rome was mobbed with "pilgrims" from all over the world..
Was not aware of the whole concept of nationalism and Catholicism, when we arrived we figured that we would go to the Colosseum as the horde would be focused on the Canonization, wrong.. on the way to the Forum, there were huge TV's set up along the way with many folks who had traveled to Rome for this event. There are quite a few Polish folks waving their flags, wearing their hats and signs all along the way. This pretty much continued up to Thursday, when we left, wherever we went there will these folks many dressed in folk costumes very proud of what had occurred. Saw quite a few Polish Folks crying during the mass, many had camped out all night to get close to the TV screens.
We found out after we reserved everything about the canonizations, so we felt it would be best to book a "tour" for the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters, it sucked.. a caveat was that everything was extremely crowded, but the tour leader was more of an art historian and did not know the function of the bldg. that housed the Vatican Museum or even St. Peter's. When we got to St. Peter's she tried to push us quickly through the church, past the "Pieta"... and we had had it, so we turned in our listening devices and ventured on our own. Only to be hastened by Vatican employees to move along. F.. them this was "bucket list" trip, so we took our time and took a lot of pix.
The police/military presence was obvious and heavy, apparently there had been some "Austerity" protests and they were very prepared to avoid anything "stepping off" as they did not want to be embarrassed in front of all of the visitors.
We left on Thursday AM, and there were still hordes of pilgrims present, still waving flags.. it was less crowded on Thursday, later we figured out it was May Day... Duh!!!
