Ed. note: Okay, so immediately after my rant about no unsolicited guest posts, here’s the latest guest post. Solicited. I’ve known Paula and Giovanni for years, and am pleased to offer their story here. Paula was born in Boston to Italian American parents, and her great-grandparents came from the Province of Avellino. She has a degree in languages from U. Mass Boston and also studied Italian at L’universita per stranieri in Perugia (Umbria). Paula worked and lived in Italy for three years before she and Giovanni settled in the U.S. Next time you’re in Salem, Massachusetts, be sure to stop by their restaurant for some authentic Italian home cooking. Tell them I sent you . . .
When people hear that I was in St. Peter’s Square the evening that the new pope was elected, I receive comments such as, “You were so lucky! . . . Talk about being in the right place at the right time! . . .You couldn’t have planned it better.” Listening to these comments, I think back about how we happened to be at St.Peter’s on that particular evening. And I think maybe we did plan it.
For the past 22 years, my husband Giovanni and I have owned and operated the Caffe Graziani in Salem, Mass. In the spring of 2012, we expanded our business to include exclusive guided tours to Italy, and specifically to Giovanni’s hometown of Piglio, located approximately 35 miles south east of Rome. Our first tour in March 2012 was a huge success and we couldn’t wait to plan our next travel adventure.
We began making preliminary itineraries in May of 2012 for the following year. Our first draft itinerary had a departure date of Sunday, March 10, 2013. This would get us to Rome on the morning of Monday, March 11th. We planned to stay in Rome for two days and then depart on Wednesday, March 13th for Piglio.
While organizing activities for our days in Rome, we realized that the majority of museums are closed on Mondays — so we had to shift our plans slightly. We changed to a March 11th departure instead, thus arriving in Rome on Tuesday, March 12 and departing for Piglio on Thursday, March 14th. Our trip’s day-to-day itineraries are quite full, and last year we had already visited both the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. So rather than repeat the visit exactly, we planned for a guided tour of St.Peter’s Basilica on the afternoon of March 13th. Still the Vatican, but something a little different.
Waiting in the rain for the smoke
Our plans were finally firmed up. But on February 11,2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would retire at the end of the month. As only the second Pope to retire — and the first in modern history — this was news that rocked the Roman Catholic world. The moment I heard it I thought, “We could be in Rome when the new pope is chosen!” I was glad we had “planned” to skip the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, because the Chapel is where the Cardinals would hold their secret conclave. Now the only question was, When would they hold the conclave?
Cardinals arrived in Rome from all over the world during the first week of March. Our group landed on March 11th. The conclave began on March 12th. The city was abuzz with activity. Our own Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley was a favorite of the Italian press.
Following our tour of St. Peter’s, Giovanni and I, along with several members
The White Smoke!
of our group, were in the Piazza San Pietro at 4:45 on Wednesday afternoon, March 13th. Rumor had it that there would be a vote at 5:00 p.m. So we found a strategic spot in the rain-soaked piazza from which we could observe the famous chimney amidst all the umbrellas. Five o’clock turned to 5:30, 6:00, and then the last rumor was that the vote could happen any time between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. Still, we waited.
As the rain continued, some of our group grew discouraged and left. I decided
I wasn’t going anywhere until I saw that smoke. I and three others of our
North Shore group remained with the hundreds of thousands who now filled the piazza. At 7:07 p.m. our patience was rewarded. When that white smoke emerged, the crowd burst out in cheers, tears, song, prayer, and chants of “Viva il Papa!”
Pope Francis with the Cardinals
About an hour later, the new Pope Francis finally came onto the balcony. He asked the crowd to pray for him. The silence in the piazza as 500,000 people bowed their heads and prayed was moving. Then we received Pope Francis’s first blessing to cap a day that we will never forget.
Buon viaggio!
Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…
