How to See the New Pope in Rome

So you’re off to Rome and in addition to seeing the Colosseum, you want to see the new pope. But how?

Your best bet is to attend a general audience (also known as a papal audience), a weekly gathering that the American Catholic Church in Rome says includes prayers, blessings and a homily. It is not a Mass but, rather, a chance to listen to the pope and mingle with other attendees. (The rocker Patti Smith was among the most recent visitors.)

Tours both old and new enable those now flocking to Rome for a glimpse of Pope Francis, who assumed the role last month, to get a seat at an audience. There are weeklong romps through the Eternal City that include tours of ancient Rome and Assisi. There are half-day excursions with transportation to and from your hotel. And there are no-frills affairs for those who simply want to be escorted into the audience from just beyond St. Peter’s Square.

Lasting about an hour and a half, audiences draw thousands of people and take place on Wednesday mornings in St. Peter’s Square or in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall. (During the summer, the general audience may take place outside of Rome at Castel Gandolfo.) Tickets are free and you can get them yourself, but to ensure admission, you should request them weeks in advance (and then pick them up in person in Rome).

There are a few ways to do that, according to the American Embassy to the Holy See in Rome. You can contact the American Catholic Church in Rome (Church of Santa Susanna) through the Web site Santasusanna.org, or e-mail the Bishops’ Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican at visitorsoffice@pnac.org; you may also send a fax to (39-06) 679-1448. Another option is to write to the Vatican: go to the Web site Vatican.va, choose your language, click on the “Prefecture of the Papal Household” link and then download the ticket request form, which you must fill out and mail (not e-mail) or fax.

If you’d rather pay a tour company to get tickets for you and provide a guide to take you there, you have several options.

ItalyVacations, the sister company of Perillo Tours, the family-owned travel company, offers one of the more full-blown tour experiences: a six-day “Meet Pope Francis” package starting at $879 a person (based on double occupancy). The trip — “a great, cultural experience centered around the new pope!” as Perillo’s Web site puts it — includes a seat at the general audience, a tour of the Vatican Museums and a day trip to the cities of Assisi (the birthplace of St. Francis, for whom the pope took his name) and Orvieto. Hotel accommodations, round-trip airport transfers and daily breakfast are also included; airfare is not. A complete itinerary is at Italyvacations.com.

Another travel company, Central Holidays, is introducing a six-day “Celebrating the New Pope in Rome” package starting at $709 (based on double occupancy). The tour is not unlike Perillo’s: in addition to attending an audience, it includes guided tours of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, an excursion to Assisi and Orvieto, hotels, round-trip airport transfers and daily breakfast: Centralholidays.com.

For those who want to attend the general audience yet aren’t interested in a weeklong tour, there are day tours that include round-trip transportation between major hotels and the general audience. Gray Line, for instance, will take you by bus past sites like the Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza Barberini, Via Veneto, Villa Borghese, Piazza del Popolo and its Egyptian obelisk, and Castel Sant’Angelo before arriving in Vatican City. About $46 for adults; $37 for children: Grayline.com.

City Discovery, another sightseeing company, also charges around $46 for adults; $37 for children. Its “Papal Audience With Pope Francis” half-day bus tour includes stops at the Piazza dell’Esquilino, Republic Square, the Mermaids Fountain, Villa Borghese, Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s Square: City-discovery.com.

Should you be averse to group travel, you can sign up for a program that offers little more than an escort to the general audience. No group bus trip. No lunch. Your guide simply meets you at Vatican City. Viator.com, a site that culls tours and activities from local guides and offers online reviews about them, has such a tour. For $42 you receive a seat at the general audience and commentary from a guide about the history of St. Peter’s Square and the papacy: Viator.com.

If you have time and patience, you may want to procure the tickets yourself and go it alone. That said, some tour operators promise guests a seat during the audience (many people end up standing). The companies also take away the hassle: no need to book so far in advance, pick up tickets in Rome or navigate through the throngs of people.

Will there be a general audience when you visit Rome? It’s typically a weekly affair but check the Web site of the American Catholic Church in Rome (see above). There may be changes during holidays and in the summer. For the pope’s near-term schedule, there’s — what else? — the Pope App. It’s free and enables you to be reminded of a general audience (“udienza generale,” in Italian, on the app) an hour before it begins, or just as it’s beginning. The app also has news, text of the pope’s previous audiences and other speeches, and a live feed tab.

Another way to see Pope Francis is to attend his Sunday Angelus at noon in St. Peter’s Square. You do not need a ticket, though you do need to arrive early. While Pope Francis has chosen to live in the Vatican guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace as his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI did, according to news reports, he still delivers his message from the study window of an apartment in the palace. 

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NEW BARS TO VISIT IN LONDON

If you’re heading to London this Spring, here are my tips on where to visit for a drink – whether you want a rooftop bar near Trafalgar Square with sublime views or a decadent Champagne bar in the form of the historic The Grill Room or a hidden bar with a detectives’ agency as a front, London has it all.
The Grill Room at Cafe Royal
The Grill Room at London’s latest luxury hotel, Café Royal, has been restored to its original Louis XVI style and it looks stunning. The opulent room has seen its share of history and scandal, and is now, thankfully, open again with a great location on the fringes of Mayfair and Soho. Visit for Champagne, cocktails and a light menu at one of London’s best new bars.
Evans & Peel Detective Agency

A 1920s detectives’ agency that’s a front for a hidden bar? With the push of a bookcase, a secret door opens into a beautifully designed Prohibition-style bar that’s low-lit, mysterious, warm and filled with delicious smells. Visit Earl’s Court to learn 

Opium Cocktail and Dim Sum Parlour
Opium Cocktail and Dim Sum Parlour is a new addition to London’s bar scene, nestled appropriately amongst the hustle and bustle of Chinatown. The bar features nooks and crannies spread over three floors – a relaxed lounge style seating area, an intimate boudoir drinking den and an open plan bar for drinks and dim sum.

Reverend JW Simpson
Reverend JW Simpson is a new cocktail bar on Goodge Street in Fitrovia – it’s an intimate space with the cocktail list focusing on Fizzes, Flips, Cobblers, Smashes and Sours. The bar retains the original room dividers, wall coverings, flooring and tiles of the apartment that originally occupied the site.

Vista at The Trafalgar Hotel
Vista on the rooftop of The Trafalgar Hotel re-opens in April for the season with glorious views of London’s landmarks and statues, with Nelson’s Column almost at eye level. The rooftop bar serves a selection of tapas plates, salads and sharing platters.

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How to avoid holiday scams

Getting into the holiday mood often goes hand-in-hand with letting your guard down. But holidaymakers are being warned to stay alert from the moment they go online to rent a property.
The City of London Police has received dozens of scams for non-existent villas and apartments. Transactions worth up to £12,000 for apartments in St Tropez and almost 70 bookings for villas in Cyprus have been revealed.
Det Supt Bob Wishart, from the City of London Police's Economic Crime Department had this to say: "As a result of the work of the NFIB (National Fraud Intelligence Bureau) we are seeing for the first time substantial numbers of people reporting villa fraud. We'd advise anyone looking to book a holiday online to use reputable websites, and look for agents who are ABTA and Atol affiliated."
There are ways to avoid the scam. Get Safe Online, a government-backed initiative to increase awareness of internet scams, says that one in three internet users failed to check the company they booked with was a member of a recognised travel association. Without official bonding, there is no way to be compensated for the loss.
Last year, a Malaga-based lettings company allegedly took payments totalling as much as £500,000 for non-existent Spanish villas. They placed adverts on two popular vacation rental websites.
The opportunity for fraud does not end there. According to research by Sainsbury's, holiday scams abroad have hit British travellers to the tune of £1.5m each year. Here are some of the most popular:

• The seat belt fine – the taxi driver demands a fine for not wearing a seat belt. He passes your money to a “policeman” he is in cahoots with, or disappears round a corner to pretend he is paying an official at the airport.
• The beachcomber – the thief watches you on the beach then takes your bag or possessions while you are swimming in the sea.
• The distraction dupe – one fraudster distracts you with a false story or by making conversation while their accomplice goes through your bag or pockets.
• The bus breakdown – the driver pretends your bus has broken down in the middle of nowhere and forces passengers to pay more money to be collected by a second bus.
• The note switch – a taxi driver or barman takes a large note from you, then switches it and shows you a smaller one, claiming you owe him or her more money.

Top Tips to stay safe:

1. When booking, check for approval from a recognised authority. Look for the ABTA logo.
2. Look for a padlock symbol in the bottom right of the browser and that the payment page url has 'https://'.The 's' stands for "secure".
3. Pay with a credit card as this offers another layer of financial protection.
4. Once abroad, keep your money and valuables in several places. Cards and cash should be in separate places too - but never in your back pocket.
5. Consider a prepaid currency card. This allows you to withdraw money from ATMs to make purchases. If it goes missing it is easy to cancel.
6. This may sound obvious, but stay vigilant and protective of your belongings.

Have you been scammed? What are your top tips for staying safe on holiday?

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Titanic II will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic

When one of Australia's richest men, mining tycoon Clive Palmer, announced he had commissioned Chinese company, Blue Star Line to build a replica of the Olympic-class RMS Titanic, many were asking why?
Bearing in mind that ill-fated Titanic, the largest luxury ship in its time, struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. It went down on 15 April 1912, leaving more than 1,500 people dead.
"Titanic was the ship of dreams, Titanic II is the ship where dreams come true," he said at the launch.
Both the exterior and interior of the ship will be nearly identical to its ancestor.
"It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st Century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," he said in a statement.

Palmer is funding the project entirely on his own saying "if there's any money to be lost, it should be mine".
Passengers will have the option to buy tickets that allow them to experience first, second and third class. Mr Palmer says he plans to take full advantage of Titanic II's third class facilities.
"That'll be where the most fun will be," he said. "For me that's the great adventure. I can sit down there, have some Irish stew, talk to somebody and at night I can get up and do the Irish jig. It'll be a great place to be."
Mr Palmer said plans are in the works to provide costumes from the era of Titanic for every passenger based on what class of ticket they hold.
The intended launch date is set in 2016 and Titanic II will sail from Southampton to New York but when pressed he declined to state that the ship is "unsinkable".

culled from Travel Magazine