Papal audience-Easter
 

Sorry for the double post- tagging for Italy now.

We faxed in our ticket request a few weeks ago for the Papal audience the Wednesday after Easter. When can I expect to hear if we get the tickets? I don't see this on the Vatican website and gotta get booking other tickets so would be nice to know soon!

I suppose you sent your request to the Prefecture of the Papal Household. (There are other places where you can request tickets by email.) You can assume they got your request and pick the tickets up at the bronze doors at the hour stated on the request form. These tickets are given in virtually unlimited numbers. They get so many requests they can't always respond and you've put in your request very early.

Bvienci- Thanks for your reply. Yes, I sent the request to the Prefecture of the Papal Household. On the form it says they will respond in writing by post or fax to those living outside of Italy so that's why I'm wondering when I might receive a reply. Is the ticket a guarantee of entry or not? How does one get a seated place? I've read mixed things on that. And lastly, assuming we get tickets- are there toilets available for use during the long wait?

Just a note that picking up you tickets at the bronze doors may not be as simple as it sounds. When we went this past May, we had to wait about two hours on line just to get our tickets.

And the tickets just get you into St Peters Square, nothing more. You need to arrive early to get a seat. We ended up standing, which actually worked well for us because we could move around a bit and were able to leave before it was over. The main thing is to position yourself near a fence, since Pope Francis zooms all around the open alley ways in his pope mobile. He actually came quite close to us (even though we were way in the back), which was quite thrilling. Buon viaggio!

Actually, many of the people who are admitted to the square don't even have tickets. A MSTeacher says, if you want a seat, you have to arrive early, because seats are not guaranteed.

There are bathrooms in the square, under the colonnade to the left as you face the basilica. You should probably take turns going to the bathrooms, or you'll lose your place for sure.

It's a bit of a mob scene, and wild horses couldn't drag me to it, but if you want to see the Pope fairly close up, it's your best chance. At the Sunday Angelus, he's on a balcony above the square, and you'd need binoculars to really see him at all.

I got my letter from the Prefecture of the Papal Household today! Actually, was hand signed by the Pope's personal secretary, Georg Gänswein. I Googled him and he appeared on a cover of Vanity Fair- "the George Clooney of the Vatican", they say. (Haha!) The letter does state to "present this letter" to pick up the tickets with times and dates for pick up. Now I can book that into our plans and see how it goes when we are there in Rome over Easter. I haven't done a stitch of other planning so high time to get going on that too!

Our tickets were delivered to our hotel in Rome when we arrived.

Kraines- sorry I was not able to reply until now. I hope that you are still watching this thread.
Delivery to the hotel sounds like luxury! Can you tell me more about your experience? Were you able to get into the square with the tickets? Some posters above have written that even though they got tickets there was no guarantee of seats. Where were you situated and how long did you arrive before the service?

msteacher and bvienci- Oh bummer that there is not a guarantee of seats even with my early request. I suppose with so many thousands in attendance it's not possible.

People with or without tickets have been arriving at the crack of dawn (like 6 am) to secure a seat or just get into the square. So it's bedlam.

I saw that Vanity Fairy article too. Now, where can I arrange an audience with father Ganswein :-)

Tulips - lol

Sorry, typo. That should be Vanity Fair.
Or maybe not.