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Silentium- I imagine your life is being affected by John Paul II death much more than those of us not in Rome.

 

Any comments on the security, traffic, people, etc.? I'm curious because my wife and I were in Rome when the World Trade Centers were attacked and we got to see all the gentlemen in blue or black appear (by the busload) carrying automatic weapons.

 

Oh, and I'm in the middle of Ohio, USA.

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Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are coming to Rome for one last goodbye to the Pope, and actually even before the announcement of his death pilgrims started to flood the streets of the city to pray for him. It was a hit for Rome, the romans were affectioned to Karol Wojtyla, whether they were catholic or not, what happened left a huge sense of loss among the italians. The red cross is doing its best to give assistence to the people who are waiting outside S.Peter's basilica (there was a neverending queue in Via della Conciliazione, the road that takes to the city of Vatican) and I'm sure there won't be any incidents.

 

As far as security goes..well, we are currently waiting for over 200 heads of state from all over the world as the funeral will take place on friday; there are over 15.000 highly specialized agents from the italian special forces who will take care of security, -in addition to normal polizia and carabinieri- the skies will be controlled by several "caccia" (military planes..don't know how to translate that in English) because there's the possibility that these people will be taken to the vatican with helycopters since taking them by car is considered a bit too risky. I think S.P.Q.R. arranged everything in the best way, there shouldn't be any problems.

 

Traffic in Rome is even worse than usual, I think it's impossible to circulate regularly at least in the centre of the city. The metro (underground) is so crowded that most people decided to get off at station Termini and get to the vatican by feet (distance is like 4 kilometres..). It is totally impossible to continue by underground from there anyway. There were so many people that you couldn't even obliterate your ticket, so they decided to make people travel for free, to avoid further complications. I won't mention the car..traffic is too intense, and sometimes you just can't circulate because of the crowd. I managed to get to university and then to work after a real odissey..on the other hand I didn't dare take the car. What everyone is wondering at the moment is where all these people will sleep. Almost every hotel in the centre is full, the roman authorities are suggesting to move in the suburbs and book rooms there, but of course that implies additional costs for transportation. In any case I hope this won't lead to a hotel emergency or something.

 

Add that we just had regional elections on sunday (with all the controversies that go with it..) and you get what this week has been like for a roman.

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