Topic of Choice - Vatican City and Tourists


    Does an extreme number of tourists impact the religious experience at the Sistine Chapel? Every year millions of tourists and Catholics alike visit Vatican City. However, one could argue that the shear number of tourists in the Vatican can make it very difficult to have a spiritual encounter. The lines at the Vatican can take hours to endure and tourists constantly have to be wary of potential pickpockets. Even the food trucks inside the Vatican take away from the flow experience for devout Catholics attempting to connect with God through the headquarters of their own religion. The unfortunate truth is that the Vatican will never become the prime place for religious experience. While it has become a travel destination for devout Catholics, the experience that is to be had there is more in connecting with Catholics than connecting with God.

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