POPE AS MOTORIST

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20728, 11 February 1939, Page 9

POPE AS MOTORIST

FOND OF SPEED. Pope Pius was a speedster who delighted in driving 50 to 5b miles an hour even on a curving road, said a London paper recently. Such is the revelation that had come out of the Papal villa in the Alban Hills. The speeding was done between noon and 1 o'clock, which was in the heat of the day. When in the Vatican the Pope used to drive occasionally late in the afternoon. He moved this up to noon at Castel Gand.olfo because of the humidity rising from Lake Albano below the Papal villa in the late afternoon. There arc only a few miles of road in the estate, and they are winding and curving. But the Pontiff insisted that his chauffeur, Cavaliere Stoppa, drive fast. Car Sickness. His Holiness enjoyed it. Not so the prelale who accompanied him. The prelate, by custom, cannot sit alongthe Pope, who leans back in the middle of the rear seat of the large American car. Arm rests are arranged so that only one person may sit at tlie hack. The prelate must face the Pontiff, and consequently must ride backward. Curving through the lanes of the villa at a speed of 50 miles an hour is not. only a little frightening, hut also productive of car sickness. The prelate has sometimes had to ask the Pope to have the car stopped. His Holiness, on the contrary, relished the varying panorama.