2,000 Buses Of Visitors: Rome Braces For Canonization Crowds
The day after Easter, St. Peter's Square was packed.
Caramba Camarra, a Gambian volunteer with Opera Romana Pelligrinaggi, the Vatican-run pilgrimage agency, said he had never seen so many people lined up to visit the basilica.
"It's amazing! The line curves like a serpent, filling the whole square," he said. "It looks like the crowds at Mecca."
What's known as "the Francis effect" — referring to hugely popular current pope — has boosted Rome tourism: March alone brought more than 2 million visitors. And the Vatican and Rome are preparing for that many visitors, and perhaps more, for Sunday's canonizations of two of Francis' predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII.
Vatican organizers say it will be a sober affair, in line with Pope Francis' no-frills style. Nevertheless, an onslaught of millions of pilgrims and tourists is expected, testing an ancient and normally chaotic city.
Tour manager Giorgio Sansa is worried.
"In a city which is nearly 2,800 years old and with a population — some say 2.5, some say 4 million — if 3 million people are coming in a city like this, an old city, there will problems without doubts, we cannot do anything about it," he said.
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