News Just In From Italy: 10 year old American Boy Has Disappeared on a Visit with His Parents to the Vatican Museum
Apr 21st, 2008, 09:54 AM
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News Just In From Italy: 10 year old American Boy Has Disappeared on a Visit with His Parents to the Vatican Museum
Italy's leading daily, Corriere della Sera, has just reported that the American parents of a 10 year old boy, the family being part of a group visiting the Vatican, has filed a missing person's complaint regarding their child with Vatican law enforcement, and the search for the boy has now been extended outside the Vatican Museum zone. And this, just as the Pope has returned from his visit to the U.S. We'll hope for the best here.
If you can read Italian, you can see the brief news flash here:
www.corriere.it
If you can read Italian, you can see the brief news flash here:
www.corriere.it
Apr 21st, 2008, 10:21 AM
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I didn't get from that article that his family was touring as part of a group. Is that somewhere else or did I miss it?
I hope he just wandered off and will be found shortly. How horrible for everyone.
I hope he just wandered off and will be found shortly. How horrible for everyone.
Apr 21st, 2008, 10:28 AM
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WT-everyone is part of a group when they visit the Vatican, as you know-unless they have a private showing, but I believe I saw that the family was part of a group on la Repubblica or AGR websites, whatever that means. Perhaps the parents thought he had gone around or was with some other members of the group, and then discovered he was gone. It sounds though, since it has been reported now on the Italian wire services, that this is something more than just wandering off and getting separated from the parents-the latest news does not indicate how long ago he was first discovered missing, but you know it must have been a very short period of time.
Apr 21st, 2008, 10:39 AM
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Apr 21st, 2008, 10:42 AM
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But how would a 10 year old get to the Via Veneto from the Vatican? I'd have to look at a map, but I don't think the Via Veneto is so close! Perhaps that will be explained in time.
Apr 21st, 2008, 10:47 AM
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Maybe he read my post on Fodors! I explained how to do it a few days ago.
Seriously, I wonder if he was fed up with a stuffy, crowded museum and decided to flee. It's probably about a 4km walk.
If he had a cellphone with him, he could have been located much earlier. I know someone posted about deciding their kids would have cellphones when traveling, in case they got split up on the metro or train.
Seriously, I wonder if he was fed up with a stuffy, crowded museum and decided to flee. It's probably about a 4km walk.
If he had a cellphone with him, he could have been located much earlier. I know someone posted about deciding their kids would have cellphones when traveling, in case they got split up on the metro or train.
Apr 21st, 2008, 12:36 PM
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Well, all's well that ends well, however I read that this 10 year old was found by the police in front of the American Embassy which is of course, on the Via Veneto-and I'm not sure that there is any signage to indicate it is the American Embassy outside-how strange for him to have ended up there-perhaps, though, he did in fact see a sign saying "Embassy of the United States" and was trying to go there? At any rate, the Italian carabinieri who found him took him back in a cruiser to the Vatican where his anxious parents awaited him in the Vatican Inspectors office. Not a fun day for the family in Rome, that's for sure.
Apr 21st, 2008, 01:24 PM
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On the article of la Reppublica it says that the kid arrived to the Embassy asking people on the street for directions. His parents told him to do this..and he didn't think on asking anybody at the museum 
Apr 21st, 2008, 02:22 PM
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kenderina-I just read another account on La Repubbica, not what you just said. It said that it remains to be understood how the child, of all the streets ended up on just that street -Via Veneto- that the American Embassy was located. It also says that in his first account to the police, he was apparently quite bored with the crowds etc. there at the Vatican, moved away without informing his parents, and just goes away, gets on the bus, and gets off on the Via Veneto! There were apparently an entire battalion of carabinieri on the look-out for him-interesting, but not beyond the capabilities of a resourceful 10 year old, by any means!
Apr 21st, 2008, 02:31 PM
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This is great his parents taught him to go to the embassy if he gets lost! What a smart idea!
He probably got separated from parents in the crowd, and managed the best he could on his own. How many 10-year-olds would have a head cool enough to go to an embassy instead of just staying there crying?
As a parent I would be proud of such a smart little cookie
He probably got separated from parents in the crowd, and managed the best he could on his own. How many 10-year-olds would have a head cool enough to go to an embassy instead of just staying there crying?
As a parent I would be proud of such a smart little cookie
