Chilled Popes and 5 Finnish Firemen

Elizabeth Clarke

It was on the first evening of the trip over dinner in a trattoria that Lynsay first mentioned what was worrying her about the dead popes. Our orders for dinner had been placed to the attentive Italian waiter, who coped admirably with the unfamiliar guttural sounds and flat vowels rarely heard out with Lanarkshire and had managed to serve the party of thirteen pupils and their three teachers. Even Donna's vegetarian stance and Stephanie's insistence that she did not like pizza, pasta or cheese did not seem to faze this gentleman.

The visit to the Vatican that afternoon had been a wonderful experience and, after spending some time in the basilica itself, we descended to the crypt, which houses the tombs of St Peter and many subsequent Bishops of Rome. ... (continues)