Tuesday, May 21. Rome. Well, I've said it time and again --- "You gotta be in the right place at the right time!!"

I was out and about this morning at 9 a.m. and caught the bus to Ottaviano. I decided to look for a tour-bus and decided the best place for that was at the Vatican. The Vatican is a short walk from the bus stop. It's hard to miss, as thousands of people were headed in that direction. As I got closer, I could see Basilica S. Pietro (St. Peter's Basicilica for you non-Italian speakers!), so I followed the crowd.

As we enter the Vatican grounds, we passed through security -- which, by the way was very easy -- almost nothing, really. The person watching the xray machine screen was busy having a heated discussion with a co-worker, but who knows for sure. I then noticed the crowd moving toward the Basilica itself, so went along with them and entered the building.

I just kept walking into the deeper part of the Basicila. The first picture is what I saw. Very beautiful and impressive. As I continued around, I saw there were barriers here and there, and when I came to the deepest part I could get into, I asked what was happening. "The Pope will pass here just after 10 a.m.," I was told. "Here??!!". "Si, si." So, I thought -- what the heck, I'll spend a half-hour and see the Pope.

The rest is what you see in the photos. At one point, the Pope passed with 18-inches of me and, as I put out my hand, he shook it and blessed me! OK, not bad for a Jewish boy from the States -- Right??!!

With that experience in hand, I made my way to the exit to find the tour-bus. After all, I figured that everything was going to go right today. It started out pretty well, don't you think??

More later....