Thursday, 28 August 2014

Weapons smuggling


I smuggled two weapons into St. Peter's Basilica in Rome today. 

St. Peter's was our last stop at the end of a long hot day.  We turned up to find a ridiculously long queue. We'd made the effort to drive to Rome and walk from the Colosseum so we decided to brave the high temperatures and wait. 

At this point I'd like to say that queue etiquette was non-existent. 

As we got closer to the front of the queue I spotted signs advising that penknives were not allowed into the Basilica. They even had airport style machines for X-raying bags. 

I had two Swiss Army knives in my bag.  They're useful!  There's the corkscrew, scissors, tweezers, screwdrivers, nail file etc. Even the knives can be useful for cutting bread our spreading pate when normal cutlery isn't available. 

What should I do? 

I know I didn't plan to stab anyone or deface any of the artwork but the police didn't know that. 

The police also didn't know that I once made a return flight to Cologne with a penknife in my bag without even realising it was there. 

I could hand them in, but if this was anything like airport security then I wouldn't get them back, and one of the penknives had travelled around the world with me; I didn't want to see it go. 

We looked for somewhere that I could stash my illicit hardware until after my visit when I could retrieve it. Nowhere seemed suitable so I decided to wing it and forfeit them if asked. 

I went through the body scanner at the same time my bag was being scanned. Nobody said a word, I wasn't challenged and I took my two "blades" around St. Peter's unnoticed. Nobody got hurt, nothing got harmed and I still have my penknives.

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