Under a darkening evening sky with seagulls and flashing drones swooping over the crowd crammed into St Peter's Square, the black smoke finally came at 9 p.m. from the Sistine Chapel. The crowd roared but the dark soot-like colour came as no surprise. The starting gun had gone off for the race to win the Crown of Peter.
The crowd were not overjoyed by the long wait. The Roman sky has become so dark that it was difficult to see the colour of the crucial plume emitting from the chapel's chimney. The Italian media are speculating that Raniero Cantalamessa, the 90-year-old Preacher to the Papal Household, went on way too long in his "spiritual reflection". For 45 minutes, so Corriere reported.
