The delight of being a tourist in Rome during the conclave

I’M ORIGINALLY from Chicago, and when I travel, that fact has historically prompted responses such as “oh, like Michael Jordan?” or “like Barack Obama?” But two weeks ago when I was in Rome, I got a new one. “Chicago! Like our new pope,” a bartender said to me, stunned that for the first time an American – Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV – had become the head of the Catholic Church.

I was visiting the Eternal City ahead of a voyage on the new La Dolce Vita Orient Express, an ultra-luxury train (more on that soon), but my trip had coincided with the start of the conclave, the process by which the Catholic Church’s cardinals elect a new pope. Luckily, this was my fifth trip to Rome, so I wasn’t in a rush to see all the sights; instead I could just take in the city during such a historic moment.

Rome’s Fiumicino Airport was packed with tourists, a mix of people who had longstanding plans to visit the city and those keen to be in Vatican City when a new pope was announced, a major event for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.