We had less than an hour to get to the Vatican and back to the station for the night train. Depending on the traffic, it can take up to 25 minutes to get from Rome Termini to St Peter’s Square, but our driver drove like a maniac, which, given the circumstances, was actually rather welcome. I made damn sure my seatbelt was working though.
But all the crazed late braking and screeching corners were rendered slightly moot by the fact that for some reason the Via della Conciliazione – the main road leading to St Peter’s Square (which isn’t square, by the way, it’s oval, but whatever) was closed to traffic. So we had to get out of the taxi, with all our stuff, and leg it the 500 metres to Popesville.
It was a swelteringly hot September night. I was grateful that my backpack wasn’t that big, but my laptop wasn’t exactly a Macbook Air, if you know what I mean, and together with my camera equipment, it weighed heavy on my shoulders, like the responsibility of running the world’s largest gang of Christians, I guess.