Palazzo Reale
Cafe in Palazzo Reale (with a lot of old china and silver)
Gianlucca and I in Palazzo Reale
Mole from the Palazzo Reale
Duomo
Palazzo Reale at night
In the evening Paola, Gianluca and I went to see Harry Potter VI. I was able to follow along pretty well since I’ve read the books a couple times. I will admit I was very confused in the beginning in Italian Dumbledore is “Silente”.
Sunday I decided that I was going to see “Il Papa” in Romano Canavese. As you may have heard, the Pope is vacationing (and having minor surgery for a fall) in the Aosta Valley which is just north of Torino in the Alps. He chose Romano Canavese, a town of about 3,000 in the valley, for his weekly Sunday blessing as Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is from the town. The train I needed to take left at 7:58. This train was vital as I needed to change trains in Chivasso to get to the town of Strambino (about 2km from Romano Canavese). The 7:58 out of Torino was the only train that would get me there in time. I arrived at the train station and the train was 25 minutes delayed. I figured it was still my best shot so I took the train to Chivasso and asked the woman working at the train station if there was a bus to Strambino or Romano Canavese. She said there was not but told me to take the train Ivrea and then she thought there might be a bus there. I took the train to Ivrea and inquired about the bus. Yes, there was a bus but it left at 11:05. The problem was that the Pope spoke at 12:00 and I wanted to get there a bit before the 11:05 bus would put me there. I wandered over to the sign with a map of the town and saw a number for a taxi…no answer. I called the tourist office hoping it would be open at 9:30 on Sunday morning and it was…and the woman spoke English! She gave me a number for another taxi company and I arranged for the taxi. Now I was not sure how the entire Pope coming to visit a small town worked. Online it said that there was a piazza where he would be speaking in. The only time I have been to see a Pope was in St. Peter’s Square when Pope John Paul II was alive. You just walked into the square and you were allowed to listen and if you had a ticket you could go sit closer. I thought…how hard can it be to just walk up to the piazza in Romano Canavese? Chapman, feel free to say it…I should have used my brain. I underestimated the fact that the leader of over a billion people might have a bit of protection! As we approached Strambino in the cab I began to notice all the streets were blocked off in the direction of the church in Romano Canavese. The taxi driver was allowed to take me to the bus drop off point where there was a shuttle bus taking people to Romano Canavese. I got off the bus fully intending to go to the piazza where the Pope would speak but the 20 polizia, 15 caribinari, and 30 various armed men had other ideas. They street was blocked and we were all funneled into another piazza (even towns with 3,000 people have multiple piazzas) where a jumbotron was set up. So at 10:00 I (along with a few hundred other people) began my wait. Since I had absolutely no idea what the program was (if the Pope was already there or where the Pope would arrive if he wasn’t) I just sat around and waited to see what other people were doing and tried to listen to all I could.
Romano Canavese (the church in front of the piazza where the Pope spoke is in the background)
A caribinari helicopter was heard overhead and people began shouting “arriva…arriva”. Well, since that was actually I word I knew I got swept up in the mob mentality and went to the road leading into the town. False alarm…I think the caribinari were just securing the field. Sure enough about 20 minutes later another helicopter arrived and the priest saying the rosary stopped between the fourth and fifth glorious mysteries to say “Il Papa arriva”…the Pope arrives. He landed in the field just out of sight and shortly after you could see the procession of protection vehicles towards the town. There was no pope mobile so the cars directly before the Pope’s (honoring his German roots with a Volkswagen) had secret service (or whatever the Swiss Guards version is called) hanging out the doors scanning the crowd.
The Pope's helicopter
The procession begins
Checking to see if everyone is ready
Clearing the way
I was in the first row and decided it was better to actually see him with my eyes (savoring the moment as my mom calls it) then to snap a picture. I did get one of his arm out the window (the healthy one). He made his way up to the church and greeted the crowd inside before stepping out into the piazza. He even made a joke about his arm! It was an amazing experience.
Il Papa!
Greeting people inside the church
Greeting the crowd
I made my way to the train station in Strambino and had some time to kill and went to the caffe near the station. I was excited to have an actual conversation in Italian that I actually understood. Sure she was talking about Al Pacino but still…I understood! Too bad I leave the country in two weeks! The funniest part was when she was explaining to her daughter (who was about five) that I was American. The girl was confused so her mother said you are Italian and she is American. She replied…no mama I am not Italian I am Sicilian!
Great company!
After I returned to Torino I walked around the city enjoying my last Sunday!
Statue of Pietro Micca
Random building by my house
Palazzo di Citta
Corpus Domini
Piazza Carlo Emanuele II
Piazza Bodoni
Frutta di bosco...my favorite snack!
Dad, even through all the craziness I did stop to smell the flowers!
1 comment:
Yes tara seeing the Pope is something special, I saw him in Rome the second day of my visit. You are so lucky to have done so many wonderful things and seenso very very muuch. Bringing home a small castle would be nice, maybe dad could get it in his suitecase. Oh yes your suitecases. Enjoy the rest of your time over the pond. Love mom
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