The Delight of Being a Tourist in Rome During the Conclave
The atmosphere in the Eternal City was electric.
White smoke billows from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel, where 133 cardinals gathered on May 8, the second day of the conclave, to elect a successor to the late Pope Francis.
Photographer: Bernat Armangue/AP PhotoHello, Sarah Rappaport from Pursuits here! I’m originally from Chicago, and when I travel, that fact has historically prompted responses such as “Oh, like Michael Jordan?” Or “Like Barack Obama?” But last week, when I was in Rome, I got a new one. “Chicago! Like our new pope,” a bartender said to me, stunned that for the first time an American—Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV—had become the head of the Catholic Church.
I was visiting the Eternal City ahead of a voyage on the new La Dolce Vita Orient Express, an ultra-luxury train (more on that soon), but my trip had coincided with the start of the conclave, the process by which the Catholic Church’s cardinals elect a new pope. Luckily, this was my fifth trip to Rome, so I wasn’t in a rush to see all the sights; instead I could just take in the city during such a historic moment.