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WMTW Channel 8: Maine residents who visited Rome before Pope Francis' death find news 'hard to process'

​It was a trip of a lifetime for Justin Chenette and his husband, Eduard. The Chenettes did a two-week bus tour in Italy and found themselves in the middle of Rome's St. Peter's Square.

​"Just to be in Vatican City for Holy Week and Easter Weekend, it was just a surreal feeling," Chenette said.

Chenette and his husband have plenty of pictures from their tour of Italy. Little did they know last weekend how special this trip would be.

They spent part of Holy Week in Rome. Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter.

"We were seeing all of the setup to the pope's arrival for Easter Sunday, and as a result, there were a ton of people, you could not move in that Basilica. You could not move in Vatican City. I mean, it was wall-to-wall people. I can only imagine what it was like on Easter itself," Chenette said. "It was just a beautiful experience to be able to go up into the Vatican dome."

​They flew home on Saturday night, and it wasn't until Monday morning, when they were jet-lagged back in Maine, that they heard the news about the pope's passing.

"It was hard to process because we were just there. We had just witnessed art, history, architecture, that feeling of something grander than yourself, and then to be hit with the news that the pope passed away, it was just hard to believe," Chenette said. "His goal was to make it through Easter, and he did."
Chenette said his memories of Rome will last a lifetime.

"It's a big deal. To be a part of that, even in a small way, to be in Vatican City and in the Vatican that weekend. It's something I will never forget," he said.

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