Pope makes surprise visit to Rome optician for new glasses

[forest444]

Last edited Mon Sep 14, 2015, 04:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Buenos Aires Herald

Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician's to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be re-used and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia, at Via del Babuino 199, in the small Ford Focus car he normally uses, drawing a large crowd of curious tourists and Romans outside, footage on Italian television showed.

The shop owner, Alessandro Spiezia, who has made eyeglasses for the pope before but always delivered them to the Vatican though aides, said he did not know that the pope would come to the shop himself. "He had told me to use the old frames again because he did not want to spend much money and insisted on paying for them," Spiezia said on Italian television.

The pope arrived with one of his secretaries and a driver and several plainclothes police. He remained inside the shop for about half an hour as Spiezia explained the use of the new eyeglasses to him. Francis then greeted crowds outside before returning to the Vatican on the other side of the Tiber River.

In an interview with Mexican television last year, the Argentine pope said that since his election in 2013 he missed being able to walk around Rome alone and that he particularly missed not being able to go out for a pizza.

At: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/197913/pope-makes-surprise-visit-to-rome-optician-for-new-glasses
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One of these days, someone in Rome should create a disguise good enough to allow Francis to go out for his pizza!

[longship]

1. Disguise? Optician? He should try these.

They work every time.

[forest444]

2. Poifect!

The reich-wingers always go around calling Francis a Marxist - and I guess this would prove them right.

[MisterP]

3. I know he's more a Don Camillo type, but ...

[forest444]

8. Pope Benedict, is that you?

Ja wohl, Francis! I vant ze Papacy back!

[MisterP]

10. an ex-pope in a pope's backyard is a sitcom only Irish seminarians could write for

[forest444]

13. Bazinga.

[noamnety]

4. I keep going back to this line:

"He remained inside the shop for about half an hour as Spiezia explained the use of the new eyeglasses to him."

I am trying to imagine the conversation:

"You open both eyes - and then look through the glass parts."

[dsc]

5. not if they were his first pair of trifocals

[Princess Turandot]

6. Might be 'line free' bifocal lenses...

compared to older bifocal lenses, they can take some getting used to, especially walking down stairs.

[X_Digger]

7. Ahh, to be young again.. no trifocals for you, eh?

No having to figure out the angle that you have to get to get the 'middle' lenses in play..

[pinboy3niner]

9. It takes time to make sure he can wholly see

[BlueJazz]

12. Pinboy !!

[Johnyawl]

16. You definitely win the thread!

[Aristus]

11. The Pope likes to go out for a pizza?

How rock-and-roll is that?

[forest444]

14. And sometimes the pizza even comes to him.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/22/living/feat-pope-pizza/

Of course, it's not surprising coming from a man who was archbishop of a city known for its good pizza. According to this recent article, Buenos Aires -a city of 3 million- has 1,200 pizzerias that make 14 million pies a year (besides store-bought and homemade ones, of course).

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://indepth.buenosairesherald.com/noticia.asp%3Fid%3D789980&prev=search

Plop, plop. Fizz, fizz.

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Stop the presses.

[SidDithers]

17. He's the bestest Pope evah!!...nt

Sid