Culture & Identity of Vatican City
Introduction
The people that work in Vatican City often times actually live in Rome and their
daily way of life strongly reflects that of the Romans. Many of these people simply
commute to and from Vatican City each day for work. However, there are a significant
number of people that do live and work in the country and for these people life
tends to be a bit quieter.
For many of Vatican City's employees who live in Rome, life begins and ends
with the work day, commuting to the Vatican, working, and heading home to spend
the evening with family or friends. For many of these people, work offers regular
hours from Monday to Friday, but for many people, especially those working in the
tourist locations, Saturday tend to be a full day with larger crowds. For those
working in more clerical roles, such as in a position working for the Holy See,
weekends are a time off of work.
For the people that live in Vatican City, evenings tend to be quiet as Vatican City
doesn't have the crowds or nightlife of Rome. However, restaurants and other
entertainment options are always close in Rome. Saturdays are the busiest day in
Vatican City, but again for the clerical employees living in Vatican City, the weekend
is the time to do as they please and these large crowds can easily be avoided by
staying in their private residence or heading out of Rome entirely. How each individual
spends this time is very personal, especially considering the vast cultural differences
found in Vatican City. However, religion is an important part of the lives of these
people and nearly everyone regularly attends mass, especially on Sundays.