Barbara Bush: Visitor in Sensible Shoes

No shopping, little fanfare, sensible shoes and no comment on policy--those were the bywords Saturday as Barbara Bush opened her first European tour as First Lady.

Up early to visit a Vatican shelter for homeless women founded by Mother Teresa, then off to tour the newly restored Arch of Constantine before rejoining her husband for a tour of the Vatican, Mrs. Bush kept to a relatively quiet and mostly private schedule.

Asked at midday if she had acquired any souvenirs to take home from Rome, the First Lady tapped her forehead: “All up here,” she said.

“She’s the sort of person who’s so conscious of helping others, of service, that this is what she wants to do, not shopping,” said Ruth Rabb, wife of the American ambassador, after the two toured the shelter for the homeless.

And in contrast with her more glittery predecessor, Nancy Reagan, the low-key Mrs. Bush has attracted relatively little attention from the Italian public.

How Are the Puppies?

What publicity there has been has focused on her now famous pet, Millie, the springer spaniel. And so, when the time came for Italian journalists to question Mrs. Bush after her visit to the Arch of Constantine, the first question was one she hears constantly at home: How are the puppies?

“Oh, how sweet,” she replied. “The puppies have all gone to loving homes. I miss them. One came back to visit the other day, and she was enormous!”

Earlier in the day, Mrs. Bush, dressed in a red suit, matching red pumps and her trademark triple strand of pearls, was greeted at the homeless shelter by the mostly Indian nuns, members of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity, who work at the shelter, and by Adelina Lunati, a 65-year-old resident, who presented a bouquet of flowers.

“In the name of all the guests of the home, I give these to the new ‘Presidentress,’ ” she said in Italian.

Mrs. Bush toured the home, donating sheets and towels, kneeling in prayer for a moment at a chapel and helping serve lunch to about 50 women.

“I’m sorry we’re not eating here. It’s such wonderful food,” she said of the menu of pasta, pizza, salad and strawberries that the nuns garner in the Roman markets by asking vendors for their leftovers.

The shelter, she said later, demonstrated “great warmth and affection and love.”

Accompanied by Annamaria De Mita, wife of the Italian prime minister, the First Lady drove from the Vatican through the ancient heart of Rome to the Arch of Constantine.

“You bet I did,” she said with a laugh when a reporter noted she had changed to flat, red walking shoes along the way. “Don’t look at my feet,” she called out jokingly.

After signing a guest register that was inaugurated by President Jimmy Carter during his visit to Rome a decade ago, the First Lady toured the site with Rome’s director of antiquities, Adriano La Regina, and the architect in charge of the restoration effort, Maria Letizia Conforto, who presented the First Lady with two books on Roman monuments and a bouquet of orchids.

Asked how this trip compared to her previous four visits to Rome--three as the wife of the vice president, one as a private citizen--Bush gestured to the small knot of American and Italian journalists following her.

“You weren’t here before,” she said.

And when one reporter ventured to ask her a political question--how she reacted to criticism of her husband’s responses to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the First Lady wagged her finger and responded, in an exasperated tone: “Now what has that got to do with the Colosseum or the arch? I guess this press conference is over.”