Michele Oliveira
Rome, Italy (Folhapress) – Italy’s most visited city, Rome lives even more frantic days due to a coincidence of events in a few days. In addition to the movement around the Pope’s death on Monday (21) and his funeral on Saturday (26), the city is full because the country is in the midst of a long holiday, with closed schools, and groups of foreign pilgrims had already been scheduled for these days because of Easter.
One of the most important events within the church’s jubilee, which takes place every 25 years, the adolescents’ jubilee was maintained and, even if Carlo Acutis’s canonization, killed at age 15, was postponed, many who already had a reserved passage and accommodation kept the coming to Roma -80,000 participants were expected on Sunday (27). To top it off, the days have been sunny, and temperatures go from 20ºC for the first time in the year.
In Italy, Easter Monday is also part of the festivities, and this Friday (25) the country celebrates 80 years of the day of release, which marks the end of the Nazi occupation in World War II (1939-1945). The schools stayed all week without classes, on a big holiday.
The Pope’s funeral added the arrival of international authorities as an ingredient in the coming hours. According to the Vatican, there are 130 confirmed delegations, including 60 heads of state and monarchs, from Donald Trump and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Volodimir Zelenski, from the kings of Spain to Prince William, who will represent his father, Charles 3rd. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people will be in the square.
To accompany the funeral, 4,000 press professionals have already registered at the Holy See. Rome officials have stated that more than 1,000 chartered buses are foreseen, with pilgrims and tourists, and the Italian train company will add 260,000 places towards the capital. By sidewalks or inside public transportation, it is a myriad of spoken languages at the same time.
Since Tuesday, safety attention has been redoubled. The surroundings of the Vatican is armored, with various vetoes for the passage of vehicles and pedestrian control posts. It is necessary to open backpacks and large bags in the first of the accesses, and those who want to enter the square or basilica of St. Peter needs to go through a metal detector. For Funeral Day, more than 2,000 police officers were scaled. Surveillance is complemented by helicopters, drones and elite shooters.
An army of organizers spreads across the streets, with civil protection agents, firefighters, rescuers and volunteers trying to guide the will of the faithful and tourists around St. Peter.
The queues are everywhere, not only to see the Pope’s body inside the basilica. With more organized flow this Thursday (24), around 9:30 am in Brasilia the whole course, outside and inside the church, required about 1h30min. It was also necessary to wait about half an hour to enter the Santa Maria Maior Basilica, about 4.5 km away, where Francis will be buried. Usually the church did not record queues.
Ice Creams and Fast Food restaurants of Italian food were also disputed points -the asciute folder, on the Vatican side, had 20 minutes of waiting to eat a plate of dough standing on the sidewalk.
Even for the Romans used to the flow of tourists all year round, the week has been disruptive. Several streets are blocked, forcing deviations and veto the parking lot. Bus lines have been reinforced, and the subway line that leads to the Vatican is in circulation up to 1h30. For Saturday, the situation will make it worse, with more blockages, in view of the funeral procession that will cross the capital to take the Pope to Santa Maria Maior.
