Yeah, this was as crazy as it sounds. It was peak tourist season in Italy, I was on my way to Amalfi Coast and I had my drone in the car. I had this wild idea of flying the drone over the Vatican even though it came with risk. I keep telling myself "but it's the VATICAN. Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness."
I remember parking down a side street so I couldn't be seen flying it and no one would know where it's coming from. Well, once the drone got up in the air, I didn't like not being able to see it — so I ran to the main square to keep an eye on it. At one point it was so high up and hovering arounds this sacred, holy place with all these people enjoying their summer day. My hands started to shake because I was so paranoid of something happening or getting caught. At this point everyone is hovering around me because everyone is mesmerized by the drone. Once everyone started crowding around me, it caused attention.
I knew I didn't have much time left. I decided to hurry up and get my shot and fly it home on auto to lower my risk of anything happening. As it was returning home it started to feel like forever. As soon as the it started to land, I saw the cops heading my way. I grabbed the drone out of the air and the blades kept going and cut my arms while the cops told me to come with them.
They ended up putting me on a list and told me it had to be under 300 grams in order to fly it. By this point, I was just excited with the footage I got and as long as I wasn't going to jail, I could deal with a fine. They didn't end up doing anything. Will I ever do it again? No, no reason to. I did it once and that's all I need. No one was hurt, no one was affected. If anything, I made a few peoples day by them seeing a drone fly over the Vatican and I got to share it with a bunch of people on the internet.
Since I'm not sure we can embed Instagram video links here yet, I've included the link below. If you know how to embed an Instagram video and feel like sharing the tip, I would be forever grateful.