I dug into the archives of my scrapbook photo album, long before the digital camera era, to locate these pics of...
"The V atican City."
(Please excuse their poor quality. I used my digital camera to take the pics as they are glued into my "Creative Memories" acid free album, which does not fit in my scanner! And I couldn't figure out how to turn off my flash, so you see a bright light in all the pics...maybe that is a sign from God!!!:) Hehehe!)
On with the story and why I went to so much trouble to post them for V-Day!!
Christmas Eve Day, 1986, Rome, Italy. St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.
It was here surrounded by the colossal Roman columns that an attempted assault took place on my life. The perpetrator?
An old Italian "bag" lady closely resembling the Greek lady in the postcard below!
This is how the events of the day unfolded...
I was in Rome for Christmas Break from Torchbearer Bible School in Holsby, Sweden. Travelling with a group of my fellow students, we decided to tour St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel on Christmas Eve day. That evening, we were going to attend midnight mass with the Pope. We had somehow managed to get tickets and were thrilled with this once in a lifetime opportunity, even though none of us were catholic. So, in honour of this special Christmas event and because we were all away from our families on Christmas, we decided to get dressed up.
Walking through St. Peter's square, adorned in our finest traveller's attire, we encountered this interesting Italian "bag" lady. ( You'll have to excuse my un- politically correct term!) Peacefully sitting on the steps under the colonnade, this woman was feeding a flock of pigeons like they were her own children. She captured our attention immediately. An old wool cardigan, that had been gnawed away by moths, was fastened tightly over her plain black dress. Her well worn black shoes held her tired feet. A babushka protected her from the beating sun and light wind that blew on that crisp day. Yet, we could see her weathered, wrinkled olive skin. We could see behind those dark brown eyes. Sadness. Loneliness. Pain. A Hard Life. A yearning for Joy to flood her soul once again. We were unsuspecting travellers wanting to capture this moment on film. We paused in silence, watching her "children" gracefully accept her food offerings. A glimmer of joy filled her eyes. It was an intimate moment until....
my friend innocently took the camera from around her neck and put it up to her eye to frame the shot.
Suddenly, our toothless lady friend got up, grabbed hold of all her bags, and came running down the steps towards us SHOUTING something in Italian. The flock of pigeons dispersed frantically all around us. We had no idea why she was shouting and waving her hands nor had any idea WHAT she was shouting. Lost in translation! Although, through her body gestures we kind of figured she was angry we were wanting to take her picture! We didn't even think she saw us watching her. I guess we were wrong!
Another trait behind those dark brown eyes....feistiness!
Calmly, we turned around and began walking away from our new friend thinking she would leave us alone. WRONG.
We continued to hear her LOUD expletives in Italian as we continued to increase our pace across the square.
Unbeknownst to us, a small crowd developed and were watching this whole scene unfold.
We decided to stop and "face the music." When we turned around, we saw this "bag lady" talking to an Italian police officer. Now, we were being chased not only by this feisty woman, but by an officer of the law in a foreign country!
( I will continue this post tomorrow and leave you in suspense...my modem and router have been acting crazy tonight due to the weather so I am behind ...it is late and I need to get to bed in order to be alert tomorrow at work! )
The infamous St. Peter's Square. In the distance you can see the columns and steps where the "bag lady" sat feeding the pigeons......
My traveller's attire....
The Postcard....
6 comments:
I'll be back to see what happened. I chose V is for vegetables from my floating garden. I invite you to come see. -- Margy
Great choice for V:)
Petnia's ABC
You have certainly grabbed my attention!
GREAT....Come on back....I will try to blog the rest tonight,but am out to the doctor's then dinner with my brother!
Okay, it had to be a misunderstanding. Surely she wasn't mad that you were taking her picture??
heather..to this day we have no idea why she was mad at us...we had 2 more weird "adventures" with old Italian women during our stay in Rome!!
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