I just found out that there is a general papal audience the morning that we had planned to visit the Vatican museums and SP. Tickets are free. I am not Catholic, but greatly admire the new Pope.
They say to get there by 9 or so for a 10-10:30 audience. Has anyone done this? Is it worth the time that would be involved?
Posted by
The Hague, NL (AMS)
2207 posts
"Worth the time to be involved" would definitely depend on your level of interest. On Wednesdays during the warm parts of the year, the Papal Audience takes place in St. Peters' Square. Tickets are not necessary for the general public... Living next to the Vatican, I probably "stopped in" at 40-50 Audiences over the years. You can simply walk in, listen for a few minutes and walk out.
There are assigned seats near the Pope, and others in the main square. I never got there at 9 AM except on Easter Sundays. We simply walked in, hung out, and depending on the interest of the people I was with ... stayed or left. Sometimes the Audience ended at 12.15 -- other times 12.45! It does sort of turn into a rally at the end when churches from all over the world bestow greetings upon the Pope.
The key issue for you is that St. Peter's will be closed from about 9.30 AM - 1.00 PM while the Papal Audience is being set up and in session. So on Wednesdays, when a Papal Audience is in session in St. Peter's Square, you have to carefully schedule your visits to the Vatican/St. Peter's. During the winter months the Papal Audiences are held in the Auditorium and you must have tickets as seating (6,000+) is limited.
A few years ago, we were fortunate to be in St. Peter's one Wednesday in February and Pope Benedict, with a crowd of Swiss Guards around him, walked out from a side-door in St. Peter's on his way to the Auditorium for the Papal Audience. He stopped and gave a blessing to the crowd and then spoke to the cheering crowd in Italian - Very impromptu, unplanned, and an unexpected experience.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
388 posts
Ron is right. Hopefully you will be headed in the right direction from here.
Posted by
Abq, NM
30 posts
Hi,
I am in Rome now and went to the papal audience yesterday, it was amazing. This Pope draws huge crowds, there were about 50k people there. With Pope Benedict I heard you could show up right before with no problem, but Pope Francis has a huge following. We got there at 730am and it was plenty of time to get a seat, but the lines were already crazy. I am Catholic so I wanted to be sure I made it in. We did get tickets in advance, but honestly they didn't even check them. If you needed to go to the bathroom though, you did need one. If you go, find a seat near an aisle wear the pope mobile passes, best place to get a good look. It was great seeing thousands of people from all over the world come together. Well worth it!