Waiting for Sistine Chapel smoke leaves thousands of tourists, and 4,000 journalists, in a strange Roman limbo [Video]

If there is one skill the Vatican has in abundance, it is the art of image-making that requires no AI to captivate an audience. The conclave – the cardinals’ vote for a new pope, which is to begin on Wednesday – is a case in point.

On the edge of St. Peter’s Square, an enormous, three-layer steel scaffolding has been erected to hold the dozens of TV cameras that will record the event – or as much of it as possible, since the vote itself is held behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel.

The cameras have a general view of the loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica, where the replacement for Pope Francis, who died on April 21, will emerge dressed in a white cassock shortly after his election. But, crucially, the cameras are also trained on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to record the colour of the smoke that emerges from the small, …