Day Three -Friday, October 24, 2026 The Journey Begins

   We had a bus to catch today for the ride to Lucca and the beginning of our walk back to Rome. Now that the ride is over and I stop to think about it, i am a little intimidated. We spent  just short of five hours screaming up the freeway at 70 miles per hour to get to Lucca. Now, we have to walk back that same distance. It is a long way!! To increase the intimidation factor the sky was dark and raining upon our arrival in Lucca. Let the fun begin!

    Up and out of our room by about 7:50 this morning. Walk to the coliseum metro stop, then a 6 or 7 stop ride to Tiburtina and the bus station there. We left ourselves a large margin of time in case anything went amiss, so we killed an hour doing research for our hike. 

    Once on the bus, Sally slept nearly the whole trip. I dozed a bit, listened to my book, watched the scenery fly by and researched where we were going to walk to once the bus dropped us off. I predicted it would drop us near the train station in Lucca. I was right.

    We walked into this walled city and found a cafe to have a pop and contact our hosts for tonight’s lodging. A few exchanges on WhatsApp and we had the entrance code. We needed to walk through the old city. Enroute we stopped at the museum and bought our credentials for the Via Francigena. The ladies at the museum gave us our first stamp. 

    A 15 minute walk exiting the walled city brought us to our hostile for the night. We have a private room with a shared bath. We dropped our gear in the room, rested a few minutes and then navigated to the grocery store a fifteen minute walk away. The road we were following went underground and so should have we, but we didn’t and consequently added about half a mile to our trek navigating around our mistake. The grocery, Esselunga, was a Walmart style monster grocery store. We bought enough vegetables for two nights of home cooked stir fry, a dozen eggs for two scrambled egg breakfasts, some chocolate, yogurt and a loaf of bread. Our food for the next 36 hours came to €16.00. Obviously our hostile has a fully equipped kitchen. I made the mistake of only bringing a hand bag to the store to carry the groceries home in instead of my empty back pack. We had to limit our buying a bit due to weight. 

    The route home was much quicker now that we understand the lay of the land. The street lights were popping on as we walked home and darkness settled in around us. 

    We cooked a wonderful stir fry for dinner. I added a chicken breast I brought from home to mine, Sally was afraid they were too old and would make us sick (they smelled great!). 

    More research, some washing up and it was lights out on this transportation day. The lightning and thunder accompanied the hard rain that fell after dinner. We were happy to be comfortably sheltered for the night. The forecast ahead looks great!

Sally in Lucca

Me in Lucca

Day Two -Thursday, October 22, 2026

    My heart attack of August 26 combined with Jeff’s impending surgery 2 weeks later put an end to our walk from Great Saint Bernard Pass to Lucca. We cancelled flights, cancelled room reservations and weeped big tears at the lost chance to visit iconic places in Northern Italy. But, the biggest loss of all was the lost chance to reconnect with our wonderful Camino friends Tom, Susan, Jonathan,  Franny and Nikki who were hiking the same route.  They had started in Switzerland a month before us and would be days ahead when we started from the pass, but we had plans to train or bus ahead to visit with them and then return to our walk. 

    Thankfully, no damage occurred to my heart, my clogged cardiac arteries were opened with stents and pains I had experienced for years melted away with the blood returning to my heart. 

Invincible Sally immediately took action to revive our walk in Italy. The fact that we were now six weeks later in the season for our starting date made starting at 8000’ up Great Saint Bernard pass a less desirable option, so we decided to do the next section from Lucca to Rome. We timed our arrival in Rome to coincide with the ending of our friends walk, we would arrive by plane a day after they arrived by foot. Last night was the reunion. Today was a continuation of our journey in seeing such wonderful people and friends. 

    Sally slept the whole night through last night. I know, because I lay awake next to her listening to  her gently snore. Doesn’t she know about jet lag? I do, because I lay awake hour after hour as my body ignored local time and insisted it was early afternoon through most of the night. I did sleep an hour or two just before my alarm tried to wake me at 7:30. The night wasn’t a complete loss, but I would have benefitted from more sleep. Sally woke refreshed and ready to go. 

    We breakfasted on boiled eggs we had prepared in our electric tea kettle last night and a yogurt, then headed out the door a little before 9:00 to rendezvous with our friends at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9:30. We walked in reverse the same road we had taken yesterday, climbing back up toward the Termini train station. At the church we waited a few minutes for the rest to arrive then spent 10 minutes in line to have our bags scanned before entering the church. Sally was particularly excited because this is the church that Pope Francis chose to be buried in. The church was first built in the 300’s and has been added onto through the years. There was quite a crowd in the church. We wandered around, viewing Bernini’s and Francis’ places of rest, seeing a relic from the manger of Christ’s birth and enjoying the artwork throughout. 

    After an hour we headed out the door, then down the street to a sidewalk cafe to have something to drink. We found a couple of empty tables we could slide together to accommodate all seven of us, then enjoyed coffee, Cokes or lattes and pastries. Periodically the discussion would turn to what we wanted to go see or do as a group. The consensus was, we were doing now what we most wanted to do, be together. We spent an hour sharing stories, experiences and ideas. They were good about pointing out places on our upcoming route that they had found meaningful as we peppered them with questions. 

Tom and Susan had an afternoon flight to catch, and so our fellowship had to disband before noon. Nicki, Sally and I headed for the Metro stop to ride across town to St. Peter’s Basilica. Susan had made reservations for a tour of the basilica for the three of us the day before, guided by an organization I was never really clear about. We needed to be in front of the facade of the church at 2:15. 

    We had a little time to spare so we stopped at a cafe for cokes and a bite to eat, then got in line about 1:45, hoping we would make it through security and up onto the front of the church by 2:15. As we stood in line we noticed people trying to cut into the line in front of us. Once inside the fences that guide the crowds a few people tried to pass us and cut the line. Both Sally and I admired and enjoyed the way Nicky matter-of-factly shooed them back, telling them quite loudly that everyone here had waited and so could they, so get back to the end. The end was a good 100 yards behind us. 

   As it turned out our timing was perfect. We arrived right on time and met Michael, a priest and our tour guide. 

   The next two an a half hours we were treated to Michael and his explanation of the history and meanings of St. Pete’s. You might think 2 and a half hours a long time, but Michael was so sincere, so engaging and so knowledgeable that the time slipped by unnoticed. The 15 or so people in our group really enjoyed the tour and complimented Michael. Sally paid him the ultimate compliment when she said we would be excited to see him as pope. 

We stopped at another cafe, this time for two beers and a fizzy water, then we walked the 1.3 miles back to our room. Nicki came up to see our place and have Sally try on a lightweight jacket she wanted to give her. 10 minutes later, amid sad goodbyes we parted with Nicky. We have hopes of getting together again, perhaps when we visit in Australia, maybe when she comes north for another adventure. 

    Time to get busy planning our walk. Primed with ideas from the group and using their guidebook they gifted to us, we planned the first three days of our walk, making reservations for places to stay, all three pilgrim Osterias. We take a bus to Lucca tomorrow, spend two nights there, touring the town and resting, then Sunday morning we begin our walk. Because the first stage spends 7 miles passing through the outskirts of Lucca through the industrial area we decided to take a short train ride two stops to avoid it and then walk the final 5 miles into Altopascio. We then split the next stage, an 18 miles distance into two nine mile days, staying the second night in the town of Ponte A Cappiano. Ponte is Italian for bridge and our accommodations for that night are literally on the bridge, a structure built by Cosimo de Medici in the late 1500’s. After that, we plan to spend day three walking the 9+ miles to Miniato, a hill top town. 

We are saddened to have our friends gone, and Rome now seems a little empty and a bit lonely, but we have our adventure in front of us and are both excited to get walking. 

Jonathon, me, Susan, Tom, Franny, Sally and Nicki

Us outside St Pete’s waiting in line to enter

Jonathan, Franny, Susan and Tom

Sally, Nicki, Susan and Franny - Camino Ladies

Nicki, Sally and me before parting ways

Tom and I in Santa Maria Maggiore 

Day Two -Thursday, October 22, 2026

    My heart attack of August 26 combined with Jeff’s impending surgery 2 weeks later put an end to our walk from Great Saint Bernard Pass to Lucca. We cancelled flights, cancelled room reservations and weeped big tears at the lost chance to visit iconic places in Northern Italy. But, the biggest loss of all was the lost chance to reconnect with our wonderful Camino friends Tom, Susan, Jonathan,  Franny and Nikki who were hiking the same route.  They had started in Switzerland a month before us and would be days ahead when we started from the pass, but we had plans to train or bus ahead to visit with them and then return to our walk. 

    Thankfully, no damage occurred to my heart, my clogged cardiac arteries were opened with stents and pains I had experienced for years melted away with the blood returning to my heart. 

Invincible Sally immediately took action to revive our walk in Italy. The fact that we were now six weeks later in the season for our starting date made starting at 8000’ up Great Saint Bernard pass a less desirable option, so we decided to do the next section from Lucca to Rome. We timed our arrival in Rome to coincide with the ending of our friends walk, we would arrive by plane a day after they arrived by foot. Last night was the reunion. Today was a continuation of our journey in seeing such wonderful people and friends. 

    Sally slept the whole night through last night. I know, because I lay awake next to her listening to  her gently snore. Doesn’t she know about jet lag? I do, because I lay awake hour after hour as my body ignored local time and insisted it was early afternoon through most of the night. I did sleep an hour or two just before my alarm tried to wake me at 7:30. The night wasn’t a complete loss, but I would have benefitted from more sleep. Sally woke refreshed and ready to go. 

    We breakfasted on boiled eggs we had prepared in our electric tea kettle last night and a yogurt, then headed out the door a little before 9:00 to rendezvous with our friends at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9:30. We walked in reverse the same road we had taken yesterday, climbing back up toward the Termini train station. At the church we waited a few minutes for the rest to arrive then spent 10 minutes in line to have our bags scanned before entering the church. Sally was particularly excited because this is the church that Pope Francis chose to be buried in. The church was first built in the 300’s and has been added onto through the years. There was quite a crowd in the church. We wandered around, viewing Bernini’s and Francis’ places of rest, seeing a relic from the manger of Christ’s birth and enjoying the artwork throughout. 

    After an hour we headed out the door, then down the street to a sidewalk cafe to have something to drink. We found a couple of empty tables we could slide together to accommodate all seven of us, then enjoyed coffee, Cokes or lattes and pastries. Periodically the discussion would turn to what we wanted to go see or do as a group. The consensus was, we were doing now what we most wanted to do, be together. We spent an hour sharing stories, experiences and ideas. They were good about pointing out places on our upcoming route that they had found meaningful as we peppered them with questions. 

Tom and Susan had an afternoon flight to catch, and so our fellowship had to disband before noon. Nicki, Sally and I headed for the Metro stop to ride across town to St. Peter’s Basilica. Susan had made reservations for a tour of the basilica for the three of us the day before, guided by an organization I was never really clear about. We needed to be in front of the facade of the church at 2:15. 

    We had a little time to spare so we stopped at a cafe for cokes and a bite to eat, then got in line about 1:45, hoping we would make it through security and up onto the front of the church by 2:15. As we stood in line we noticed people trying to cut into the line in front of us. Once inside the fences that guide the crowds a few people tried to pass us and cut the line. Both Sally and I admired and enjoyed the way Nicky matter-of-factly shooed them back, telling them quite loudly that everyone here had waited and so could they, so get back to the end. The end was a good 100 yards behind us. 

   As it turned out our timing was perfect. We arrived right on time and met Michael, a priest and our tour guide. 

   The next two an a half hours we were treated to Michael and his explanation of the history and meanings of St. Pete’s. You might think 2 and a half hours a long time, but Michael was so sincere, so engaging and so knowledgeable that the time slipped by unnoticed. The 15 or so people in our group really enjoyed the tour and complimented Michael. Sally paid him the ultimate compliment when she said we would be excited to see him as pope. 

We stopped at another cafe, this time for two beers and a fizzy water, then we walked the 1.3 miles back to our room. Nicki came up to see our place and have Sally try on a lightweight jacket she wanted to give her. 10 minutes later, amid sad goodbyes we parted with Nicky. We have hopes of getting together again, perhaps when we visit in Australia, maybe when she comes north for another adventure. 

    Time to get busy planning our walk. Primed with ideas from the group and using their guidebook they gifted to us, we planned the first three days of our walk, making reservations for places to stay, all three pilgrim Osterias. We take a bus to Lucca tomorrow, spend two nights there, touring the town and resting, then Sunday morning we begin our walk. Because the first stage spends 7 miles passing through the outskirts of Lucca through the industrial area we decided to take a short train ride two stops to avoid it and then walk the final 5 miles into Altopascio. We then split the next stage, an 18 miles distance into two nine mile days, staying the second night in the town of Ponte A Cappiano. Ponte is Italian for bridge and our accommodations for that night are literally on the bridge, a structure built by Cosimo de Medici in the late 1500’s. After that, we plan to spend day three walking the 9+ miles to Miniato, a hill top town. 

We are saddened to have our friend gone, and Rome now seems a little empty and a bit lonely, but we have our adventure in front of us and are both excited to get walking. 

Jonathon, me, Susan, Tom, Franny, Sally and Nicki

Us outside St Pete’s waiting in line to enter

Jonathan, Franny, Susan and Tom

Sally, Nicki, Susan and Franny - Camino Ladies

Nicki, Sally and me before parting ways

Tom and I in Santa Maria Maggiore 

Days 1 & 2 Tues & Wed, October 20 & 21

Anticipation can be such a joy and such a pain. A kid waiting for Christmas waits with happy anticipation. A death row inmate waits with dreaded anticipation. I lie in bed this morning somewhere in between, but definitely closer to the Christmas kid than the inmate. Spending six weeks walking from Lucca to Rome sounds amazing and I can’t wait to get started. But, nagging in the back of my mind is that daunting uncertainty-will we be able to find a room, how will my body hold up, will we get drenched with rain, are my clothes adequate for the conditions we will meet and on and on. Still, if I can quiet the voices of doubt and remember that with our preparation the universe will take care of us, then moving forward with confidence becomes our mode of travel. 

We have been packing for a couple weeks, making clothing choices, toiling over what toothbrush to bring, how many pieces of KT tape, what items are in the first aid kit, in the repair kit and more. We have to remember that everything we bring I have to carry for six weeks.  Being light is key. 

This year we dropped from two sleeping bags to one. In a pinch it will serve for the night, but mostly we use it as a down blanket to augment a scantily covered bed in a cool albergue. This opened up much room in the pack, something we sorely needed last year when we hiked from Assisi to Rome. 

I carried a long sleeved, collared shirt last year, but after reviewing photos a few days ago I found I never had it on with my fleece pullover and puffy coat. I had a nagging remembrance that I didn’t really need it, so it stayed home this year. More room and less weight in the pack. 

Sally also trimmed down her supplies, leaving at home a dress she took last year, among other items.  

The wonderful Caldwells drove us to the airport in Portland this morning, picking us up at 8:00am and arriving at the airport at 9:30. TSA precheck got us through security without a line and by 10:00 we were seated at our gate awaiting our flight. 

We met a young woman with her first child, a baby girl, traveling to Minneapolis to visit for 10 days while her husband was on a hunting trip. 

The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful. A three hour layover afforded us time to stretch our legs by walking the concourses. 

Boarded the flight to Rome at 7:45 and were airborne by 8:20. We were in a middle row of three seats with one seat empty. Not enough to stretch out and sleep, but the extra room is nice to sprawl out our junk.  I’m still amazed that something as huge as these planes holds together and gets off the ground and then flys halfway around the world without refueling or breaking down. Stunning. 

We landed at 12:10pm in Rome, Rome time. Getting into the EU through customs was photo identification and a passport scan, never talked to a soul. We bought bus tickets and rode to Termini Station. The weather was sunny with occasional clouds. We stopped into a WindTre mobile phone shop to buy a SIM card for Sally’s phone. They were having a sale, one eSIM and one physical SIM, each with 200 Gb of data and unlimited calling for $41.00, for both. It took about half an hour to complete the deal and get the SIMs switched on. They only last 30 of our 44 days. We will have to figure out what to do at the end of 30 days. I have unlimited data for the entire trip through Holafly, but Sally’s phone will go dark. 

Having sat for the past 16 hours we decided to walk the 1.3 miles across town to our lodgings, the Queen Palace Suites. As is typical of Rome the streets were busy with continuous streams of pedestrians and vehicles. We worked our way through them, stopping once to retrieve our umbrellas from the pack when a two minute rain shower found us. 

Sally was certain we were at a hotel with a 24 hour front desk. When we arrived at our destination according to our phones we couldn’t find a hotel front. We started to walk around to the back, but met with a local woman who said we should look for the address on the building, 21, as it was probably behind a single door front on the street. She was right. We soon found #21 and stepped off the street an into the building with that address. A sign on the interior wall said the Suites were on the 3rd floor. We took the elevator up and found the suites, but no one was there to let us in through the locked door. We activated our new SIM cards ( we were hoping to do this from the quiet and comfort of our new home) and called and emailed the number in booking.com. The proprietor had us text a photo of Sally’s passport, then texted she would arrive in 10 minutes. She did, let us in and showed us to our room. I was fine.  

Sally showered and I napped for an hour, then about 5:45 we started walking to Piazza Navona where we were to meet Franny, Jonathan, Nicki, Tom and Susan. We were early so we strolled the piazza until we spotted Jonathan and Franny. Soon the 7 of us were seated at an outside table talking about there just completed walk on the Francigena and our upcoming one. Dinner lasted over three hours as we swapped tales and caught up on each others lives. I was begging to fade. It was now 9:30. We had been awake for about 30 hours, not counting any tiny bit of sleep we might have picked up on the flight. Although everyone was delightful, I could feel the pains associated with lack of sleep creeping in on me. We walked back to our room, stopping to buy half a dozen eggs and two yogurts for breakfast. We were in bed by 10:00 hoping for restful sleep. We are meeting them at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9:30 tomorrow morning, about a 20 minute walk from our room, then off to a guided tour of St. Pete’s with Nicki as Tom and Susan head to the airport to fly to Morocco for another 3 or 4 days of walking. 

Sally on Rome’s narrow sidewalks, walking to our room. 

In Navona square as the sun sets

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - “Transition Day” Colosseum, Emmanuel Monument, Fiumicino , - 0 miles (ptp), 7.5 miles total - 0’+ 0’-

Sally liked to say this was the day she got to sleep in.  And we did, until 7:00am. We did move slowly this morning. By the time we got all packed up, ate breakfast and was ready to go see a bit more of Rome it was 9:45am. Our hosts said we could leave the pack in the kitchen area for the day after we had checked out and that is what we did.

We walked to Termini station and took the subway a couple stops to the Colosseum station. Here we walked around the base of this colossus and read Rick Steves history and description while seated on a bench.  It had rained last night, we heard it on the roof of our top floor apartment, making it hard to find a dry place to sit, but someone before us had soaked up all the water off this bench, leaving it dry for us.

We didn’t really need nor want to pay to get into either the Colosseum or the Forum, we were happy to just stroll around the outside and take in what we could. The rain had filled in all the spaces between the large round rocks that the pavement here was made of making it a challenge to hop from rock to rock without getting wet feet by stepping in-between.

We wandered up Via Die Fori Imperiali past the Forum to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, that massive marble monument to the unification of Italy back in 1861. We had walked past it many times in the past, but never climbed its marble steps. We entered past the man guarding the gate and climbed to the top level. We enjoyed the view and stopped at the cafe for a coke before heading back down.

We decided to walk back to our apartment, the walking distance to it only slightly longer than back to the subway and from Termini home. Strangely, we found ourselves walking the same route we had the past two days, up the Via Quattro Novembre. Is this the only road in Rome that leads to our apartment? We detoured off onto the Via Nationale instead of the Via Panisperna as in the last two walks. This route had more people and shops, a better alternative.

Back at the apartment we asked the cleaning lady if we could use the restroom, then I grabbed my pack and the other bag and we walked back to Termini to catch the bus to the airport. As we were walking along the side of Termini station toward the line of buses that ferry people to and from the airport we saw a Donar Kebab shop across the street. We darted across and ordered to Panini Kebab’s to go, one for dinner tonight and one to eat between flights tomorrow in Munich. 

On the way to the airport it started to rain hard. We grabbed the pack out of the storage under the bus and hustled into Terminal 3 where we texted our hotel. They drove up in their car and gave us a ride to the hotel, just 10 minutes away.  I had mapped the route a month ago and saw that we could walk the 3.5 miles in less than two hours, but was super thankful we had hired the car now that the rain was thundering down.

We had to get up at 3:00am for our 7:00am flight to Munich. We ate our Donar Kebab dinner. This is the first night in a month that we aren’t planning the day after tomorrow’s lodging or bus rides or hiking route or where to get food. The only thing we have to do tomorrow is get up, ride to the airport in the hotel provided car, get on a couple planes, get in the Caldwell’s car and ride home. With the spare mental time Sally Christmas shopped on the web. I watched the first episode of Stanger Things Season 5 and a little bit of the Godfather. We crawled into bed about 7:00pm and were both quickly asleep. A mellow last day to our trip.

Monday, December 1, 2025 - “The Sistine Chapel All To Ourselves” - Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s - 0 miles (ptp), 7.5 miles total - 0’+ 0’-

We planned this day over a month ago. Drawing on our past experience visiting the Sistine Chapel, we were hoping to avoid the shoulder to shoulder crowds in the chapel floor and the docents shouting “SILENCIO” every few minutes. How do you avoid a crowd in what is arguably the most popular tourist attraction in Europe?  The Sistine chapel is at the end of the Vatican Museum, sort of like the last exhibit. To tour the museum you have to sign up for a timed entry. Our plan called for us to schedule our entry to the Vatican Museum for the first available time slot, 8:00am. We booked this way back at the end of October. Our hope was to get in first, run the length of the museum to the Sistine Chapel and get there long before the rest of the crowd worked their way through the exhibits, at least an hour, and have the chapel to ourselves. Today was the day we would find out if our evil plan would bear fruit. 

We were up at 5:45am this morning and on our way to the metro line by 6:50am. We walked from the Ottaviano station to the Viale Vaticano and walked up to the entrance, arriving about 7:20am. We were about 20th in line. About 7:50am they starting checking passports and we advanced to the entrance doors (the Vatican is its own country, hence the need for a passport). Inside we went through security.  They told us we had to check our umbrellas, couldn’t carry them through the museum. Bummer. How many people would get in front of us while we waited in line to check our umbrellas? There was no line and checking the umbrellas was quick. We hurried up the stairs and over to the entrance booth where they scan your tickets. There are about 6 scanners side by side to accommodate the crush of people, each with an employee to watch the operation. I held my phone to the screen, the gate opened and I was in!  I scrolled to Sally’s ticket and reached back over the screen to the scanner . . . nothing happened. ????  My competitive side looked over at the other aisles expecting to see the masses flowing in, yet they were all stopped too. All the scanners had lost their internet connection and had gone offline. If we had gotten here two seconds earlier, Sally would have made it through the turnstile and we would be racing to the Sistine chapel while everyone else was stopped by the cranky gates. Instead, we were trapped. The minutes ticked by and our hopes of seeing the Sistine sans crowds started to fade. 

After what seemed an eternity, probably 90 seconds, they came back on line.  I scanned my phone and the machine balked. People started streaming through the other turnstiles while ours languished. The attendant went and got an electronic device that cleared us through and we were off. 

We walked as fast as was politely possible down the length of the museum past the busts, the tapestries, the maps, through the Raphael rooms and finally to the last exhibit before the stairs up to the Sistine Chapel. During this whole sprint/walk we traversed room after room of exquisite art without another person in the gallery with us nor behind us, except one couple that had the same idea we did. 

At the last exhibit before the chapel we were held up by a docent that told us the chapel would not be open for another 10 minutes. As we impatiently waited a small group of about 12 of us piled up at the doorway. Finally, it was 8:30 and he let us go. Up the stairs we rushed and into the chapel, first and only ones there. For the next hour, Sally and I, plus maybe 20 other people that straggled in had the magnificence of Michelangelo’s masterpiece to ourselves. We listened to Rick Steve’s excellent history and description of the roof as we gawked open mouthed upwards. We pointed, shared things we noticed, snuck a few photos, got yelled at but not once heard “SILENCIO” yelled. Truly a gift. 

Satiated, we continued the museum tour which wound back to the beginning and with permission of a docent ducked a rope and started the tour again, this time to see the rest of the museum. Again we employed Rick Steves excellent audio tour and thorough enjoyed what we saw. The contrast between the empty galleries we had speed walked through and the mass of humanity that now filled the spaces was startling. We again entered the Sistine Chapel, now thick with people. We worked our way through like negotiating a tight box canyon in a Utah desert, finally exiting the museum about 11:30am. 

We had reservations to enter St. Peter’s through the holy doors at noon, but we were too far away to make it on time. We headed that way and arrived at the pilgrim office about 12:45, got our leaflet with our instructions on what to say when and took a seat on a nearby pillar base to wait for our group to form. 

About ten minutes later a lime green jacketed woman came over with a big wooden cross with the painted emblem of the 2025 Jubilee year on it,  handed it to one of the eager people in our group, opened the gate and we began our long trek to the holy doors. Of course, we had passed through them last Thursday, but this time it was more official. 

It took about ten minutes to reach St. Peter’s square where we had to detour to the right to go through the metal detectors before continuing on up the stairs and through the now open doors. It appears they hold all others passing through the doors to allow us sanctioned pilgrims through without the general rabble. 

Once inside we put in our headphones and listened to Rick Steves yet again, this time he described the cathedral, its history and what we were now seeing. We passed out of St Pete’s and began searching for a Kebab place for lunch. We found one right across the river and stopped in for Kebab sandwiches. 

We had been looking for Christmas presents and found a shop sporting what we were looking for on their website. Navigation in hand, we started for it. We soon discovered we were walking the exact same streets we had walked last night, only this time we were walking them in the light.  We found our shop and were delighted to find the articles we were seeking. Gifts in hand, we walked the final 200 yards to our place. It was only about 4:30pm, but I felt exhausted. I flopped into the bed and lay there with a full body ache, one of completely spent fuel. I wrote a bit, but mostly just zoned. Were the previous 29 days catching up with me?

About 6:30 I roused myself to start cooking dinner, stir fry vegetables and spinach tortellini.  Dinner was delicious and we ate everything we had bought the night before. 

At this point in the trip we had only one more connection to make, one more plan to implement. We had reserved a room near the airport as our first reservation for the trip back in October. It was three miles from the airport. Now we just had to make sure we had transportation from there to the airport Wednesday morning. I had searched and found a bus that would take us from the airport to our hotel, Porto Di Claudio or at least within a quarter mile, but no bus went early enough in the morning to get us to the airport two hours before our 7:00am departure. We knew the 7:00am departure was going to be a pain to work with when we booked it, but the flight price was excellent and the total travel time with layovers was the best we had found. 

Sally got on WhatsApp and communicated with the hotel and found they would transport us to the airport at 4:00am for €25, beating a taxi or Uber by about half. With our last connection cemented, we called it a night. I felt bad. Here we were in Rome, 7:30pm at night, the whole city out there and I was too tired to go explore. I guess there are limits, although I hate to admit it. 

Something you never see, the galleries of the Vatican Museum free of crowds. Sally and I race to the Sistine Chapel to have it alone. 

Something you never see, the galleries of the Vatican Museum free of crowds

Something you never see, the galleries of the Vatican Museum free of crowds

What it looked a few hours later on our second pass through 

Our plan worked. We are nearly the only ones in the Sistine Chapel

I snuck a photo of the ceiling. Being the only ones there and 10 docents watching, I got caught and yelled at. I professed to be adjusting my audio tour. 

 

Back around to the beginning, we viewed the art this time through 

Gotta love the old Greek statues the Romans found

One of my favorite of Raphael 

Statues and statues 

Beginning our trek to the holy doors on this Jubilee year

Approaching St. Pete’s 

Through the holy doors

Sally pauses to touch the holy doors

Our room in Rome

Our room in Rome

Our room in Rome