After breakfast the next morning, we meet the security team by the waterway. It’s a comfortable thirteen degrees, and James, ever composed, slides on his Ray-Bans before addressing the team.
"I hope you are all feeling more refreshed," he says, before we set off on our short walk to the Vatican, and it’s every bit as grand as I had imagined—perhaps even more so. James wasn’t wrong. Stepping inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time is a moment I know I’ll remember forever. I rarely stop in my tracks, but the sheer beauty of it holds me still, utterly breathless. There’s something deeply moving about standing in a place built by human hands, a reminder of the astonishing world we’ve created.
The morning passes in a whirlwind of history and awe as we explore various parts of the Vatic
