WHEN MY ALARM goes off, at 6am, I struggle out of bed, reflecting on Oprah Winfrey’s statement that everyone can get up an hour earlier to exercise, no matter how busy their day is. Well, Oprah, I agree with you in theory but give me a break! Often I get up during the night to deal with emails that constantly come in from all over the place – Americans, eg like instant responses.
I used to work exclusively with the Irish. That was a lot of fun and now I have started to organise pilgrimages from Ireland again. We Irish are expert at combining religion, drink and a bit of a sing-song without blinking an eyelid. There were some hilarious moments in those days. I remember one pilgrim tour where the men got sick of seeing churches and asked me to drop them off at the nearest bar while the women went to a church. After a few days, the priest wanted to go the pub too. I said “no, no you have to say the Mass”.
It takes me 35 minutes to drive to work from my house at the beach near Fiumicino airport, weaving in and out of the lanes and trying to guess which one will move fastest – very Roman. Here, if you leave a few inches between you and the car in front of you someone will push in and take your place. I spend most of the journey on the phone (hands free of course).
It takes me about 15 minutes to open my office doors with all the security I have had to install. We are right beside the Vatican, in a very safe area, but security is still important.
I visited Rome for the first time when I was 13 and on a school trip. We arrived about 6pm by train from Paris. The sky was pink and there seemed to me to be total chaos and excitement – perfect for me. I had found the place where I belonged. I couldn’t wait until I could came back to live here forever. I love everything about Rome: the colours, the smells, the people, the history, the sheer beauty and the food. Especially the food.
Working with the Vatican is never boring. Over the past month we have had a power failure for about two hours, someone dying while waiting in line to go into the museums, and a lady breaking her leg when she fell on a wet marble floor. The great thing about Italy is that you can always find a way of getting around any obstacles. Italians are very understanding – I would be locked up in any other country. When I was young, I had a special blouse for the Vatican. It was silk and the buttons popped opened at the slightest movement (without really revealing anything). Many a group got past a guard and shook hands with the Pope with the help of me and my blouse!
Now I play on the Italians’ love of their mamma and thus their respect for the older woman (soon I will be like their Nonna). I use all sorts of different techniques. Gently smiling, then pleading, then crying and appealing to their sensitive side. If all that fails, I get angry and shout. Once I told a Vatican official that Ireland would be declaring war against the Vatican at midday if I wasn’t given what I wanted – they ceded at 11.45am. Battles always end with smiles and hand-shaking. The Irish and the Italians understand each other perfectly.
Our first tour is at 8am – one hour before the normal opening time of the Vatican museums. Once in the office I greet the people who have booked the VIP tour online. They will be taken straight to the Sistine Chapel before they start the actual tour of the museums, so every minute counts. During a normal day there are more than 2,000 people inside the Sistine Chapel at any one time. It can be very uncomfortable indeed. We specialise in getting people into the chapel in the smallest possible numbers, according to the time of day. The most awesome tour we offer is the evening tour when the Sistine chapel is exclusively ours.
Lunch is the best part of the day for me – it isn’t easy to eat well near the Vatican but there are a few places where you can relax and enjoy good food. There is a saying that Italians live to eat and we eat to live. I am fully Italian in this respect.
In the afternoon I answer emails. We have had so many since a New York Timesarticle in January about our after-hours tour, it is almost impossible for me to keep up. On average we have two after-hours tours of the Vatican a week and also evening walking tours around the heart of Rome. I rarely get home before 9pm. After a quick bite to eat and an hour or two watching TV while answering emails, I collapse into bed.
- Geraldine Torney from Belfast runs a travel agency in Rome specialising in the Vatican. 00-39-0639723051 italywithus.com.
- In conversation with Susan Chenery