Our final stage. We walked through the Roman suburbs, over Monte Mario, Mons Gaudii, and finally entered St Peter’s Sq. We crossed paths with Giannni, aka Pavia, who greeted us saying “You look like a work of art. Are you feeling emotional?” he asked in typical Italian fashion where emotions and feelings are always at the surface. Yes, we answered choked up a bit.
St Peter’s Square was mobbed with visitors from all over the world, but it is large enough to accommodate many more. The basilica is such an overwhelming structure in size and composition, it would be difficult to minimize its effect. Bleary-eyed we filed through the fast lane to get our Testimonium and then gained access to the Basilica ahead of a long line of visitors. In Canterbury the comment was “Pilgrims get in free”, in St Peter’s it’s “Pilgrims don’t have to wait in line.” After the pilgrim’s mass we tracked down the Archbishop. In Canterbury, we told him, the Bishop blessed our journey, we needed his blessing to close it off. He obliged. Thus in 16 short weeks we were able to bridge the Anglican and Catholic churches. Is Istambul or Jerusalem next?
We are too overwhelmed by the end of our journey and heavy with wine to say good-bye. There will be another “trip summary” tomorrow, before we cap this off. All I can say is we love Rome and loved our walk.
Walking the Via Francigena 
And you truly are works of art! Bravi x a million. So proud of you guys! Sorry you are missing our Unveiling of an Important Buiding tomorrow. But I will
later share the poem I wrote with Edward (and P!) since you were in the same track. Love you guys!
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Quite a feat. I was surprised by the religious overtones, but then if you did it for fitness or sport or adventure or walking mania it would just be a different religion, so it’s all good. Speaking of which, you both look good. I see no signs of fatigue, but I’m sure they are there. Congrats and stay in the spirit.
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When in Rome…
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We have loved every. single. step of your journey, making it our morning tradition, over a cup of coffee, for me to read aloud to Jean your daily accounts. I’m not sure what we’ll do next to start our days, but we do look forward to hopefully see you again soon and hear more from the source. Thank you for taking us along, thank you for sharing your voices, thank you for your thoughtful musings and the thoughtful deference to the pilgrimage you passed to your awe-struck readers.
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Hi Becca – thanks for joining us! See you in DC
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Congrats!!!🎊 It has been so fun to follow along with you both
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Than you for joining us!
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Well Done You Two. Hugs and love, J,L
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Congratulations – a wonderful accomplishment. We have enjoyed reading about your journey along the way. Bravo!
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Thanks for the final play by play. Makes me remember closing out my long bike trips. It’s almost that you don’t want to come back and join the rest of the world as you’ve had such a unique and personal experience (but the grandkids await!). Enjoy it and embrace it. The world will always look a bit different to you both.
Evan
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Congratulations! It has been amazing to follow you on your trip.
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Congratulations — We’re full of admiration. Sam and Esther
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I spent the evening reading through your whole blog and re-living our VF. We loved the sense of humor and the crazy joy of the pilgrimage walk that you expressed. Looking forward to our Zoom next week. Mark and Allison
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