It’s 3:00 in the morning. I’ve been back home for a couple of weeks, but I’m still fighting the urge to operate on Italian time.

 

Even had a short vacation after my return.  Didn’t help.  I was still suffering from jumping different time zones and sleeping when I normally would be working.

 

Seems like it’s just tough to adjust my body clock when (for the most part) I can sleep when I feel like sleeping.

 

 

So, here I sit, wide awake and thinking about what best to share from my latest adventures in news.

 

Was it fun?

 

You know, we worked some pretty crazy hours while in Rome. I clocked 30+ hours straight on the day the white smoke puffed out to indicate the selection of a new Pope.

 

 

Just my typical day. I shot video for b-roll, interviews with anyone we could find from Southern California, edited packages and ran the camera for live shots that hit during all hours of the day and night.

 

All this mostly happened around the Vatican and St. Peter’s square and then most of that from the 2nd floor and roof of a convent that borders the South side of St. Peter’s Square.

 

 

I don’t know the details, but CBS Newspath has arranged to use the convent as our broadcast facility since at least 2005. I know, this because I was there that year covering the funeral of Pope John Paul.

 

 

It’s still pretty amazing to me that I was there then.

 

I never really thought I’d be going back to Italy for another news story, but that’s where I found myself during the Papal Conclave.

 

 

We were working out of another room in the convent, but it was pretty similar to the room we had back in 2005.

 

Quite a few more bodies were floating around this time. CBS Network had decided to crash the party and set up shop in the same facility.

 

 

That was all good for us local news and affiliate folks. Mainly because there was food available and also coffee. Last time out we had a much tougher experience. We had to rough it and just went hungry for a good part of the time.

 

We worked while the city slept and there weren’t any convenience stores nearby.

 

 

This time around I also noticed a lot more liveshot locations had sprung up on the neighboring rooftops.

 

 

It was pretty cold at night and it rained off and on all through the week. Most of the work I did is overshadowed by the enormity of the event itself. Looking back on it all now, I’m thankful for the photos I had time to capture and I’m glad I’m putting a few thoughts into words on my blog and other places around the Internet.

 

I witnessed history.

 

Of course, everything we see and do immediately becomes history. Some moments are just more worthy of remembering than others.