Baxter, my elderly sister has never been inside St. Peter's Basilica or attended a Mass. She'll probably never get back to Rome again. I wanted her to get to see one service inside the Basilica. We can give away tickets to the outdoor Masses to nuns, as only one outdoor Mass would be sufficient for us. I think we may skip the Papal Audience and go to the Isle of Capri the day it is scheduled, as that appears to be our one wholly sunny day in that locale. We will be giving those Papal Audience tickets away. It is possible we might be able to trade them with someone for the Chrism Mass tickets. I'm in hopes when we ask at the Visitors Center, that just might be the case. Thanks for the 3-6 p.m. the-day-before ticket pick-up info. That is very helpful. I'm not sure we could get them at 7 a.m. the day of, due to it being a very early morning (9:30 a.m.) Mass? People would probably already be standing in line? If it were an afternoon time Mass, yes, probably. You may be right that there won't be any tickets at all handed out by the Swiss Guard during Easter Week. I have written a nun who works with the Visitors Center for info about this. I'm sure she will reply. I wonder how early we would have had to request tickets for indoor Masses during Holy Week to secure them? Maybe back in the fall. I will know now to write for tickets for the Epiphany Mass nice and early! There were several empty seats at the Christmas Eve Mass, though, even, when we were there, so more people could have attended, had they wished. I read that you don't always have to have a ticket. If the seats aren't filled by ticket holders, they will let you in. Of course, there is the possibility that after waiting in line for 3 or 4 hours you will be turned away by the Swiss Guard for not having a ticket. I guess it is a gamble you can take, and not that many people are willing to take it? Hence, the empty seats we saw at Christmas Eve Mass. Or, maybe people were unhappy with those seats and moved out of them, realizing the view would be so much better from in back of the prime sanctuary seating for the entire Mass? There they could see something, although they had to stand up for the entire Mass? Others could have had their emptied seats, although maybe the Basilica had reached maximum capacity, number wise of people? I'm not sure which. I would have moved like that, had I known it was possible to do so. We couldn't see anything. But, NOW, I know.
