The Pope Comes to Yorkville
What a fleet of black, black cars swept down 87th Street this afternoon!
It’s a lovely day to be outside — really more like May or June than April — and while I can’t say that there were throngs of onlookers, there was enough of a crowd to make a big noise when the Papal stretch (not the Popemobile) drove by.
 
His Holiness had arrived at St Joseph’s by this point. First Avenue (a stretch of which can be seen between the crosswalks) was blocked for fifteen minutes or so, on a Friday afternoon. What a perishing jam that must have created.
I thought of that Italian movie, where Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni spend the afternoon on a Roman rooftop during some big event during the Mussolini period. I, however, was for all but five minutes alone on our vast roof. Tenants who could have come up for a spacious, big-sky kind of experience (not to mention a better view of the goings-on) craned over their balcony railings for a passing glimpse. It’s true that the management does not encourage people to go up on the roof. But there’s a crowd every Fourth of July.
Ah, more crying and screaming and shouting. The Pope must be on his way to wherever he’s spending the evening. The official part of the day is over.