On our first of three days in Rome, we napped and then set out to explore. Fred brought his sketching materials and I, my camera, with the intention of walking together for a while, and then separating. Fred, to draw; I, to photograph. As we were walking toward Piazza del Popolo, we had to squeeze by a small group sitting on the sidewalk. I thought nothing of it and hadn’t even noticed they also had their iPhones and cameras trained on the door of the hotel across the street. Fred overheard someone from a car ask one of these people what they were waiting for. U2 is staying there, they said. They were to play at the Olympic Stadium the following night, so this seemed feasible. I’m a fan, but not a huge fan. I'd never go see them in concert, for instance, but then again, I really don’t go for big concerts. I do love Bono, though, and love seeing famous people, so I stayed and let Fred go on ahead to his destination (Piazza del Popolo) where he would sketch. This was at 5 pm.
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| People were surprisingly respectful by standing across the street. |
Crowd mentality is a crazy thing. I wonder how many people stood there just because there was a crowd and had a serious case of FOMO! I, myself, never really knew what Fred had heard about U2 staying there. I only knew what he said to me after we'd passed: Oh, U2 is at that hotel. And that was enough. I was front and center and became, for some reason, the person people asked (in all kinds of accented English), What is everyone doing? For the first hour or so of my two-hour stay, I became a completely ill-equipped spokesperson for the group. I was always clear about knowing NOTHING for sure, but that apparently, U2 was staying there. Later, as the group got bigger, some folks beside me became the unelected spokespeople. They were Italian, and their answer sounded like this: OO DOOay. (U2 in Italian.) This was always met with a blank stare from the asker. Finally, I said U2! And they'd say, Ah! U2!!! I explained to the Italians that OO DOOay just doesn’t work for some people.
At one point, I thought I saw either Mary Kate or Ashley Olson come out and get into a black car. I pointed her out to some girl next to me and she said, "That's totally her!" It was nice to be with a kindred spirit.
Some guy had a friend who knew U2's roadies apparently, so he went off to get in touch with them, and came back and said those guys think he’s still in Nice!!! He also said when they were in Berlin, they came out the back door of the hotel. That’s when I started wondering about this way of spending my time. It would’ve been so cool for the Edge and Bono to come out and get into one of these black Mercedes vans… but yeah, no. Lots of other rich-looking people came and went, but not the ones I was looking for. I finally texted Fred that I was ready to go whenever he was, and wished my compadres the best of luck.
I read on-line that people were later camping out in tents in front of the hotel! And I just found out this:
Sunday night at 6 pm (I was just 48 hours early): Adam, the Edge and Bono each came out and greeted the crowd, shook hands and signed autographs. Check out these videos. Almost as good as being there! And I recognize nobody in the crowd, so I wasn't the only one who gave up.
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| This was an Uber of some sort. Imagine calling for a ride and they show up in a Mini Cooper? At least it's a four-door, but seriously, it better have been discounted. All the other black cars were Mercedes and BMWs. |
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| It was kind of a Hollywood jet-set type of crowd. |
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| When these guys came out I was convinced they were handlers. They stood waiting at the black vans. |
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| Lot of short dresses and short shorts with butt cheeks escaping out. |
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| And this chick came and went a couple of times in puffy pink slippers. She had a Kardashian-esque quality. |
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| When this guy went into the hotel, he covered his face on one side, the side facing us, so I figured he was famous. But then he came out later and just stood there. He even photographed the crowd. |
I have no regrets. After all, I had to save my energy for the 30,000 steps I would walk the next day.
And PS — I just looked up one of the nicer suites in the place. For $8K a night, I wouldn’t have come out either!
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