LAST Friday, just outside the Alpine village of Costa, high in the Dolomites, the road was under repair. Traffic had to halt for 10 minutes while a concrete mixer delivered its load. No one paid much attention to the Lancia stuck in the middle of the queue.
No one paid any attention, that is, until an eager eyed child spotted "him self" sitting in the back seat. Quick as a flash, the child gathered some flowers and handed them in the window to the elderly gent, dressed mainly in white.
Yes, Pope John Paul II was on his summer holiday break in the mountains, a two week break which ended yesterday with his return to the traditional papal summer residence at Castelgandolfo.
In the matter of holidays, as in much else concerning the daily activities of the Pontiff, Pope John Paul long ago chose to break with centuries of tradition. It was in 1987 that he first opted to take a private mountain holiday, thus rekindling the enthusiasm which made him a regular mountaineer in his native Poland. Nine years later, the Pope's mountain holiday seems like a fixed marker in the Italian summer calendar.
The Pope's annual holiday also represents a fixed point in the paparazzi calendar. Although the holiday is "private" and although the Pope's discreet security detail spends a deal of time trying to shake reporters and photographers off his trail when he leaves his chalet for his daily walk some one somehow always manages to get a snap of him.
Not that there is not plenty of opportunity for the determined paparazzi since the Pope tends to be out on the mountain for most of the day. This year, however, in contrast with his first Alpine outings, the 76 year old Pope has been taking things very gently.
Dressed in a Violet coloured anorak and equipped with a cloth cap and bamboo walking stick he still walks with a alight limp following his 1994 leg break his day out usually begins with a car drive up the mountainside to a special vantage point where, it is hoped, he can enjoy the Dolomites in privacy.
Vatican sources said that this year he has walked an average of 5 km a day. Although he strolls along on his own, the Pope is, of course, always trailed by his small security corps, as well as a couple of mountain guides who bring along both the lunch and a tent for his mid day nap.
The Pope's high altitude lunch, incidentally, usually comprises a plate of soup, bread, cheese and a glass of wine.
According to the senior Vatican spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro Valls, the Pope has been enjoying his lunches this year. "Every day after lunch he goes over to the guides and thanks them for the lunch, saying. That was great, thank you.
Dr Navarro Valls can speak with some authority as he is one of the small number of walking companions who, along with security men and guides, accompany the Pope. Among the other walkers in the papal party last week were two compatriots his ever present private secretary, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, and Dr Tadeusz Styczen, his successor in the chair of ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin.
The Pope and his entourage confess that never have holidays been more badly needed. Since he underwent surgery for the removal of an intestinal tumour in 1992, the Pope's health has not only been the object of media speculation but has also visibly deteriorated.
Last Christmas, a dose of influenza prevented him finishing his Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day address, while last March another unspecified illness prompted the cancellation of various engagements.
Looking tanned and sounding well last Sunday in a public address to an audience of 10,000 in the Dolomite town of Pieve di Cadore, the Pope appeared the better for his holidays.
Which is just as well. Busy times are ahead of him, starting with trips to Hungary and France in September, while trips to Poland, France and Brazil are already written into his 1997 calendar.