We visit Rome every year, but a few years ago I realised that I was no longer fit to climb the steep stairs to the top of St. Peter's Dome. I had the great idea that I would go up to the first level and wait in the sunshine for my DH and DD to get me on the way back down. After about half an hour of people watching, I suddenly remembered that there is a one way system to the top and back down and that there was no way my family would be able to come back down to meet me.
Just as I was plucking up courage to ask one of the men in suits with the gun hidden in his jacket, if there was anyway I could take the lift back down, (Which wasn't permitted) I noticed an American tourist with a plaster cast on his leg, who had decided he had made an error of judgement and couldn't climb up to the top. He approached the guard , who refused to entertain him , who insisted that it was a one way system and the only way to get back down was to go up first. The conversation became very heated, but the guard refused to change his mind.
I thought about it and eventually plucked up courage to try and persuade the guard, in my best basic Italian, to let me go down. I was like a comedy actress trying to act out the scenario that I had hip and back problems, couldn't climb up to the top and could he please allow me to go back down the wrong way, as my family would be looking for me. He looked at me in astonishment at my antics, including me becoming very tearful.
Eventually, to be shot of me, he took me to a lift, where at first the attendant said I could only go up. After some discussion, the lift attendant took me back down, with me thanking him profusely.
I went and sat inside St Peter's, as that was where I knew my DH and DD would exit from the dome. I congratulated myself on my ingenuity and sat passing the time people watching, but still they didn't appear. I became even more anxious, when I saw the American with the broken leg appear, knowing that he had gone up after them and it would have taken him forever to get back down.
After about half an hour DH and DD arrived, but they had come from outside St. Peter's Basilica. It transpired that they too had realised that they would not be allowed to come back down the way they would come to meet me. Apparently they explained to a guard what the problem was, stressing that I was a poor helpless soul. DH's Italian is pretty good and the guard eventually instructed them to follow him. He took out a huge set of keys and led them through hidden doors in the walls, down stairs inside the walls to the level where I was supposed to be waiting.
Of course there was no sign of me. The guard helping them approached the guard who had helped me, to see if he had seen me.
The conversation between the two guards went something like this. " Do you mean the mad woman with the red hair, who won't stop talking, who has something wrong with her hip" The guard then took them to the lift that I had gone down on and the guard explained that this was idiota's husband.
What my husband said when he found me is unprintable.In a church, as well!
People pay a fortune for tours of the secret Vatican. My husband went places, few people are allowed to see for free. I don't understand why he was complaining. 