Daniela saw him as a statue, Giulia like her dead grandfather, and Chiara could not believe how such a great man could look so small.
As at least 100 000 mourners continued on Tuesday to queue for hours on end in and around St Peter’s Square, waiting for a fleeting moment to say goodbye to Pope John Paul II, impressions from those who had filed past his body were as varied as they were emotional.
The pope’s body, resplendent in red and white vestments, is lying in state in front of the Basilica’s main altar until his funeral on Friday, giving people one more chance to pay their final respects.
”It was beautiful,” said Lisa Caruso, a 22-year-old pharmaceutical student who spent three hours in the line snaking around the Vatican, ”but we couldn’t stay long. They kept on telling us to move on.”
Gigi Fumagalli said he was happy that the guards did not let him linger.
”I was going to make a little lake of tears if I had stayed,” said the man in his forties, who had travelled all night from the northern Italian town of Lecco.
”It was incredible how small he looked, such a great man,” said his friend Chiara Ismara. ”If you don’t believe in life after death, it would be terrifying.”
On the steps of a nearby church, Giulia Pugliano sat fixing make-up smudged by the tears she wept at the sight of John Paul II’s body.
”It was like seeing my grandfather,” she said, although he looked a little ”like a puppet”, she added.
”No, for me he looked already like a statue,” said sister Daniela Pugliano, like Giulia also from the southern Italian city of Catanzaro.
Some, like Sister Pia, were so moved by the occasion they decided to stand in line all over again after already filing past the body once.
”Only faith can move all these people,” she said, impressed by crowds that are reported to have passed half a million since the public viewing began late on Monday.
The line, many singing and praying, at first moved relatively quickly down the main artery reaching St Peter’s Basilica, but as the day wore on it slowed, and some people were beginning to give up.
”Everyone is stuck. We don’t know where to go,” said Serena Prischi (18), from a town in the central Italian region of the Marche.
Prischi said her group was giving up trying to get into the queue for the time being.
”We might try again later.”
David de Napoli, a 22-year-old from New York, was holidaying in Luxembourg when he heard of the pope’s death. He immediately made his way down to Rome and spent four-and-a-half hours in the line overnight to see the body of the pope.
In the basilica, he could feel ”that there was grace being poured out. It was like a direct channel from heaven to Earth. You can totally feel that.”
The square was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, with thousands of empty water bottles, old newspapers and food wrappings lying on the dark grey cobblestones.
”It’s unbearable,” said Francesca Mercuri as she closed down her café — open 24 hours a day since the pope’s death on Saturday — to clean up a little.
”We have to close for hygiene reasons,” she said, as thousands stood outside her corner café, about 2km down the line from St Peter’s Basilica.
And it is still early days. Up to two million people are expected to arrive in the Italian capital for Friday’s funeral.
Manuela Reale asked everyone she could find if they knew of a clean toilet in the area.
”I’ve been looking for ages,” said the Roman student.
Street cleaners had clearly not reached the square or its surroundings where Rome’s large green garbage bins overflowed with detritus.
One garbage bag had been left in the basket of a bicycle chained to a lamp post. By mid-morning, city workers began distributing large plastic bags through the crowds in the hope of containing the litter.
”I can’t believe the number of people,” said Margherita Caputo, a homeless woman sitting next to all her belongings at the base of a column. ”I, who have lived here, have never seen anything like this.”
Most in the line were Italian, with pilgrims from across the world expected to arrive later this week for his funeral.
Nevertheless, some foreigners — mainly clergymen and -women — also waited in the crowd, which repeatedly broke into long applause every time an image of the pope was shown on the giant screen set along the path.
”It is incredible that so many hearts were moved to salute their pope,” said Jorge Lopez of El Salvador.
He said he was not surprised by the joy that could be heard in the religious folk songs accompanied by tambourines sung by the thousands of youths.
”It should be like this,” said Lopez, who still faced at least a three-hour queue. ”The pope told us to look into the future.”
Napier on his way
Meanwhile, Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop of Durban, will depart for Rome from Johannesburg International Airport on Wednesday. He will participate in the funeral of Pope John Paul II on Friday and then will remain in Rome to participate in the Conclave to elect a new Pope. — Sapa-AFP