Elizabeth Lev: Tour guides work to build bridges during Jubilee

By Christopher Wells 

Tour operators and tour guides, who do so much to enhance the experience of pilgrims coming to Rome during the Holy Year, are taking part in their own Jubilee on Monday.
 

Following a Mass at the Church of San Salvatore in Lauro, in the heart of Rome’s historic centre, workers in the tourism industry will take part in a torchlight procession to Piazza Pia, before undertaking the final segment of their pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica.

Ahead of the Jubilee Pilgrimage, Vatican Radio spoke with Rome tour guide Dr Elizabeth Lev, who, for more than 30 years, has been sharing the beauty of Rome and of the Catholic Faith with pilgrims and tourists from around the world.

In this interview, Dr Lev says tour guides can be “bridge-builders,” helping visitors understand the culture, the sights, and the spirituality of Rome. “And so here is a group, an immense group of people who work all the time to be this bridge between our incredibly rich history and in the case of a jubilee year are very, very deep and powerful spirituality,” she says, adding, “We are working very hard to be the best bridge and the best face we can for the Catholic Church.”

Interview with Dr Elizabeth Lev

Elizabeth Lev: My name is Elizabeth Lev, and I am a Roman tour guide.

Vatican Radio: We're speaking with you today about the Jubilee of tourism, which is coming up in just a few days. Can you tell us what that’s all about?

Elizabeth Lev: Well, it’s been a very busy year for every single person who works in the tour business. We have had tens of millions of pilgrims coming to the city of Rome. And it’s actually, you think about it all the tour managers, the tour guides, the people who organize the hotels and the transport, we’ve been busy, busy, busy all year, and it seemed like just before that [Jubilee] door closed, it would be wonderful if we could all squeak through together. And so, together with the head of the tour guide union of Italy, Isabella Ruggiero, we managed to get ourselves inserted into a Jubilee of Tourism, and we’re terribly excited.

Vatican Radio: And you certainly have a huge responsibility – all the tour guides, tour operators, tour managers throughout the Jubilee year, you have a very big role to play. Talk about what it means to be a tour guide during a jubilee year.

Elizabeth Lev: I mean, if you think about it, when these people, pilgrims, wherever they’re coming from, these are people who are coming from far away. In particular, in the case of pilgrims, perhaps these people have never left their country before. They certainly don’t speak the language. Or even those who do, I mean, it’s a very confusing and chaotic world here in the Roman capital.

And in many ways, for many people coming from far away. The tour guide, the tour manager are the first faces that they will see. They are, in a certain sense, the “Pontifex Maximus” into understanding the culture, the city, the sights, and the spirituality of the city. And so, a good tour guide really makes the experience, helps to elevate, helps to make the pilgrim understand, and a poor tour guide can really damage the experience, as people have found out.

And so here is a group, an immense group of people who work all the time to be this bridge between our incredibly rich history and, in the case of a jubilee year, are very, very deep and powerful spirituality. We are working very hard to be the best bridge and the best face we can for the Catholic Church.

But for that you need a little bit of bolstering. And that’s where prayer comes in. And so, the opportunity to be together as a group, to pray together at Mass, to be able to process together, to make this journey together, and pass through the Holy door together is really, for me, it’s going to be the highlight of my Jubilee year.

Vatican Radio: And you’ve already touched on this a little bit. Speaking about how you guide tourists and pilgrims through the holy city into Italy, to a new country, especially in the Jubilee year, pilgrims come not just to take a tour of different sites, but really on a pilgrimage. What does that mean for them? But also for you as a tour guide to visit during the Jubilee year as a real pilgrimage to the city?

Elizabeth Lev: I think one of the things the guides and the tour operators who are in direct contact with the pilgrims have to remember is that pilgrimage is a moment of vulnerability. I mean, the people who are going through the Holy Doors are going through the Holy Doors to renew themselves, to pray for the soul of a loved one.

I mean, we are dealing with the most essential and existential elements of human existence. And so there is a certain amount of psychology, but also empathy that goes along with the knowledge that this was made there and this is made here. It’s much, much more than reciting facts, but really trying to understand these people in front of you, how can this passage through a doorway be meaningful to them? How can we make this very rich history of the city tailor-made to their experience so that they feel renewed? They feel in this moment of vulnerability, they feel secure, safe, elevated, and enriched.

Vatican Radio: I’ll ask you one question about the responsibility of tour guides, tour operators, both towards the people that they’re guiding and serving, but also towards the places that they’re showing to these people.

Elizabeth Lev: Absolutely. And this is what it really... A bridge goes both ways. And so we have a great deal of sense of responsibility for the care of the various sites of the city. But I think even more so to be able to show these sites in their best light.

I mean, there are moments when you’ve walked up to Saint Peter’s this year, and it’s been a little bit of a head scratcher, but to be able to accompany people through the rather labyrinthine entry system and keep them motivated, focused, we’re doing this, we’re doing that, we’re looking at this. It was a very important part, a very important role that we played. And sometimes we were able to shore up, as guides, moments when perhaps the organization around the city collapsed.

Vatican Radio: What is one of the most important things that you feel that you are able to share with pilgrims and tourists when they come to Rome?

Elizabeth Lev: Well, I think in my case, I am a transplanted American. So I came here over 35 years ago, and this became my home and my experience in Rome, the way it changed me, everything I have is because of the city, and everything I have is because of this job. And so what guiding taught me is being able to share with other people what I know, being able to relate to other people, and to constantly renew my own enthusiasm for the city. I think that’s a very, very important part of what, for me personally, it means to actually be a guide in the city.

I think secondly, again, after many, many years, the question is always, does it get old? But to see people enter Saint Peter’s Basilica for the first time, or to begin to put together the history of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, or see Mary Major, that never grows old. It’s a constant source of renewal for me as, as a guide.

And I just say, the last thing that’s been kind of exciting to share with people is that we do have an American pope. Instead of talking about these people that have always been like, yeah, yeah, 500 years ago, Italian, Polish, German… But now this guy’s from Chicago. So it’s been a very exciting year to kind of feel this kind of warm, fuzzy light on the Americas, talking about Pope Leo as an American.

Vatican Radio: And one final question. What does it mean for you personally to go from being a tour guide to a pilgrim for this upcoming Jubilee on Monday?

Elizabeth Lev: I think it really is very fulfilling. It comes full circle.

At the beginning of the Jubilee year, the Dicastery for Communication came to me and asked me to be involved with a project called “From Tourist to Pilgrim.” And so, at the very beginning of the year, we were looking at sites from the point of view of tourists who come to Rome, and maybe, you know, opening up the lens a little bit more, they might be able to begin to see with the eyes of a pilgrim.

And now here at the end of the year, after tours and tours and tours and tours, I to get to be a pilgrim and not only just a pilgrim, a solitary pilgrim – because Lord knows I’ve gone through the Holy door a million times – but I think the joy of being this particular pilgrimage is being together with my community, this group of people that I am part of, I’m proud to be part of them, and that I owe so much to because they helped me make a life in this magnificent country and get closer to this fabulous Church.