Song of the Day: The Best Thing by Boom Crash Opera
Pilgrims done good 🙂
Yesterday’s dawn heralded the start of the final stage on the Via Francigena, from La Storta into St Peter’s Square and the Vatican. Like many days I was up and gone in the darkness, just to give me a chance of escaping the soul-destroying heat…yes, it has really been that bad, as the other pilgrims walking with me will attest. Despite the early morning start, I found myself at times walking faster than the traffic, as the main roads into Rome were already congested at that time of day. The last stage isn’t the most pleasant of walks. For the majority of the stage you are walking either on or alongside major thoroughfares into town – think walking from Surfers Paradise to Kirra along the Gold Coast Highway through all the construction zones for the light rail. Many pilgrims catch the train from La Storta into Rome to avoid the less than tranquil environment. There are actually two sections on the last stage where you do walk through parkland – however the first park is overgrown, and the second park is closed due to falling trees and a wild boar problem. My fellow pilgrims opted to catch a train from La Storta to Monte Mario train station (which will forever be referred to as Super Mario station by our group), to then accompany me for the remainder of the stage.
Having reached the walls of Vatican City near the Vatican Museums, we opted to continue down a few more blocks, leading us back onto Via della Conciliazione, affording us that amazing view from the front of St Peter’s Basilica, as we walk into the square. We then jumped into the line where pilgrims get quicker access to the Basilica in order to claim their Testimonium certificate for completion. The line was also full of tourists who had booked a visit to the church online. We did push past quite a few people, who huffed and puffed about us pushing ahead. But we just showed them our official credentials and charged on…’sorry, but the Pope sent us!’. We met the pilgrim welcome volunteers, a husband and wife team, who presented us with our certificates…in Latin of course. We finished off that momentous day by checking into our excellent accommodation (which has an amazing view of the Basilica dome from the seventh floor terrace), before heading to a local restaurant (friends of the accommodation host) where we were welcomed with a free glass of Prosecco, and some amazingly delicious food.
So that marks Camino #3 for me. A hard fought 170kms walked. Some lessons learned. Other decisions justified. New experiences had!
I’ve already started making plans for a three-month adventure in Europe in the second half of next year. So the Wilde Trips blog will live on!!!
Buen Camino!
Weary, but happy to have completed another medieval pilgrimage walk
