FanStory.com - Lostby Tom Horonzy

A family of four had hired and met with a private tour guide in Civitavecchia, Rome's port of call, after debarking their ship to visit Florence and Rome. Everything went uneventfully smooth until... Vatican City, where a crowd gathered to receive a blessing from the Pope.

As the family slowly crawled at a snail's pace through the Sistine Chapel, the husband decided to rush ahead to find a place to rest. He errantly exited through a door that was other than the normal exit, found a seat and waited. Other families passed by. Not his. He decided to follow where others went only to exit beyond the city-state gate.

Ruh roh! Panic arrived. The family had to meet with their hired ride at five p.m. to return to Oceania's M.S. Insignia before she set sail. So he began to hie, South then East, until finding a street that led to St. Peter's Square. That is where the Pope was scheduled to appear to bless the estimated throng of twenty-five thousand visitors.

As frantic as he had become, imagine how distressed his women were. Would they reconnect? Would they return to the ship without him? Would he end up hiring a flight to the next port of call, Cannes, on the French Riviera?

Oo-la-la.

Fortunately, two things rescued the day. First, the man was six-foot-six. He stood out like the Pope would in white. Most of the people there were significantly shorter. Secondly, the man donned a bright canary sweatshirt that chirped visually as much as the singing-named bird does vocally.

I guess you know things worked out. They sighted each other simultaneously, which caused his youngest child to scream hysterically and the eldest to nearly faint. As for his wife? What she said before the Pope and his herald angel, I cannot share. There they stood hugging and dancing like four barefoot folks having their feet meet blazing sand.

The end.