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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue439" data-source="post: 822673" data-attributes="member: 53455">Thank you for your image. Don’t worry about eloquence, and I hope you do feel better soon.I wasn’t thinking about The DaVinci Code, but rather Angels and Dæmons, which Brown published a couple of years before and which I recommend, it is a fun and (at least partly) educating read. And more personal, unlike The DaVinci Code for which he purloined most of the material from the 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh. I had read that hugely entertaining (and quite original, even though of course the world now knows that everything about the so-called Priory of Sion was a fake from the get-go) book in the 1980s, and therefore I wasn’t at all surprised, 15 years later, to read the developments in The DaVinci Code: I knew how it would end. Anyway, if you want to know about the behind-the-scenes in the Vatican (albeit a very romanticized version of it), you should read that book, it is good entertainment. Utterly un-believable of course, but it’s like Star Wars: once you get into it, you swallow the whole thing!The secret passage, known as the Passetto (literally, “the little passage” in Italian) does exist, I walked it at night (I have photos to prove it!  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite27" alt=":giggle:" title="Giggle    :giggle:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":giggle:" /> ). It runs, completely hidden from the streets below (and when needed to hide it from buildings, it is covered by a stone roof), atop a former sheet wall between the Vatican and the enormous Mediæval fortified castle of Castel Sant’ Angelo, almost a kilometer away. It begins behind a nondescript door right next to Saint Peter’s basilica in the Vatican and was used twice by Popes (Alexander VI in 1494 and Clement VII in 1527) to escape invading armies and seek refuge in the impregnable Castel Sant’ Angelo.I cannot pretend to know the current Pope, but I had the honor of being introduced to him, for what it’s worth. Not a big deal, it happens to thousands of people every year. I knew slightly better Pope Karol, whom I was lucky enough to meet three times, once almost in private (we were three people with him). I have never met a more striking and charismatic person than him in my whole life.And especially for you, and so that you don’t think I am making empty promises, here is a photo of the Passetto at night, in its covered part! Not so very impressive, hey? Well, remember it is a secret passage, so it’s above all supposed to go unnoticed...Nikon D3S, Nikkor 24-70mm ƒ/2.8 E ED VR lens, Nikon SB–900 flash in TTL mode on the camera. 1/60 sec., ƒ/8, ISO 640.[ATTACH=full]408666[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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