On the way back through San Pietro this afternoon, I was accosted by “Rimi Gupta, Reporter with Channel 24 News, from Paris,” who wanted to interview me. She very quickly followed up her introduction with asking if I was a tourist visiting the Vatican – to which I responded (truthfully) that I was on my way back to work. She lost interest and shot off to accost some other soul photographing Bernini’s colonnade. It was hard not to notice the hordes of television and news vans pulling up to the Piazza and the crush of people milling around outside the doorway to the “Press Office for the Holy See.” A quick internet check revealed that the Benedict XVI had resigned, and a Conclave was expected soon to begin the search for the next Pope.
See what happens when Minnesota students show up in Rome?
