Simon Calder: What to expect visiting Rome and the Vatican after Pope Francis’ death

Simon Calder: What tourists can expect from visiting Rome and the Vatican after the death of Pope FrancisSource: The Independent

Transcript

00:00Following the sad death of Pope Francis aged 88, Rome is in a very different situation

00:09from normal. The Holy Father will be laying in state for the next few days at St. Peter's

00:17Basilica in the Vatican City, which is surrounded by the city of Rome. The main attraction in

00:28the Vatican is the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. They will be closed completely

00:36from the day of the funeral, Saturday the 26th of April, through to the end, I understand,

00:44of the conclave to elect the next Pope, which could be anything up to the 12th of May. Between

00:54now and then there will be many people who wish to go to Rome to pay their respects to the late Pope.

01:05Remarkably there is quite a lot of flight availability to Rome at the moment. I'm seeing

01:12prices typically under £100 each way from many of the UK airports to Rome. Accommodation is going to

01:21be trickier because there is a surge in demand for rooms, but even so you may be able to put together

01:29a relatively low-cost package holiday if you want to go there and booking a package gives you much

01:37better consumer protection. In terms of tourist attractions, apart from the Vatican Museums and the

01:46Sistine Chapel, most places are likely to be operating normally. The exception will be on the day of the

01:55funeral when you can expect a very heavy police presence. That may also extend to Santa Maria Maggiore

02:04Church, which is quite close to Roma Termini, the main railway station, which is where Pope Francis said he

02:13wished to be buried. It's also conceivable that there will be some disruption in places where there is

02:22a large population of devout Catholics. I'm thinking anything from Poland through to the countries of

02:30Latin America and that's likely to be particularly on Saturday the 26th, the day of the funeral. A number of

02:39people have been concerned about having trips to Rome booked that they now feel they don't wish to take

02:48because they are simply not wanting to go somewhere which will be very crowded and very, I imagine, sombre.

02:58Well, unfortunately at this stage there's very little that you can do to change your trip. It's certainly

03:06worth talking to your holiday company if that is the case, but the assumption is it will go ahead as

03:12normal. The one exception would be if you have booked a cultural tour with the main site being the

03:20Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, then you might be entitled to get a refund or postpone that trip.