As I prepared to wake up this morning, I was very anxious to travel to where we were going today. The Vatican was a place I had only read about or heard about many times on the news or by others telling their stories about their visit to this holy place. So, I was especially excited that I was able to experience this beautiful place. Even though we were already going to tour inside of it, I was excited to be able to hear from the Secretariat of Communications.
Our second media visit was definitely one to remember. We had a total of 4 workers in the communications section of the Vatican talk to us (which I was not expecting). Each speaker was interesting, especially Alessandro Gisotti and Charlotte Smeds who were in charge of the Vatican’s various social media account. Wanting a future in social media marketing, hearing what their strategies were and the differences in their strategies compared to many businesses or companies was very insightful.
One aspect of that visit that definitely stood out to me was when Charlotte was explaining how they do not necessarily have a “target market” and their posts have to be approved by the Pope. This showed just how different working for the Vatican would be versus for any other business. Their intentions are way different, and their main focus us to spread or show news to the people.
Once our media visit was over, we started to tour the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The architecture and detail in all of these parts of the Vatican was absolutely stunning. As we toured through each section, I kept thinking to myself how people could be capable of building and designing such intriguing work.
It seems that every day I am here in this beautiful city, I am beyond overwhelmed with everything I am seeing, and I am trying my absolute best to soak it all in!