Day 73: Stage 60: Vatican City, 20 km, sun, sun sun!, 28°

All Roads DO Lead To Roma!

Come on, I’m sure you already knew what I was going to call this post!😂 There wasn’t really any other serious contenders. 

As I write this we are sitting in a small cafe having lunch after walking into Rome. The Pope decided to invite a few thousand of his friends into St. Peter’s Square, but somehow our tickets didn’t reach us. Everyone was upset, but what can you do? So we sit and wait, nursing our cold beers and trying to avoid the fellow who wants us to pay and leave. We are experiencing a little price shock with lunch about 30% higher than everywhere else. Not unexpected.  

Everyone talks about how ugly the walk into Rome is, but it was pretty ok. I think we walked the ugly part late yesterday afternoon. 

Rome from our window this morning. Not a ton of sleep last night. Not clear what was on my mind😉

Of course there’s the coffee thing. Outside in the crisp morning air I might add. 



Then after a short time, we left the roads and walked in a lovely peaceful area well into the city. 

Rob decided he needed to clear the path. 







Back up into a busy Saturday morning in the city. 

Selling fungi to the city folks. So many people as we walked deeper into the city. This was unlike any other big city walking experience while on Camino. Sure, I’ve walked plenty of big cities, much bigger than Rome, but not on a Camino. 3 million people live here. 



We started to slow our pace and look at this, Rob wanted a second coffee!

Then out of the city again with a long climb to the old city observatory. 

The Olympic park. 

And then there is was. The eternal city. Roma!

It took a while to get here, but what a journey!

I did ask Rob to take some photos here. 

Down into the city streets. 

The Vatican walls!

sadly we couldn’t initially get into the Vatican. It seems the pope had upstaged us and was holding a special gathering in Saint Peter Square. Apparently there were thousands of people. So a little put out we went and found a small place for lunch and of course a cold beer and waited it out.

Eventually we are allowed into St. Peters Square, but there were thousands of people lined up to go into the cathedral which is where we had to go to get our testimoniums. Our host told us that Sunday will also be very busy, so we made the decision to go back on Monday morning when it will be much quieter. Not a big deal as it’s just sort of a piece of paper. The real story of course was the walk. 

Rob was there for me today. He took photos of me all day, often when I wasn’t aware and now I have a very nice record of the last stage. Thanks Rob! 

These last two weeks walking together have been a blast! Rob kept me laughing all the way in. Just what I needed and was looking for. 

To end the Camino together in a place like this was just so unexpectedly brilliant! There weren’t the emotions, or maybe it’s better to say that the emotions were quite different from other completions. Just satisfaction. I think it will take some time for the lessons and experiences from this walk to really settle in. So much happened that it will simply take time to arrive. Just too much to absorb right now. And frankly I don’t have to! 

We walked on another 3-4 kms to our hotel. 

There was much more to the story today, but I think that’s enough for now. We plan to celebrate tonight, actually starting in a half hour! Oops Rob has fallen asleep🤣. He did really well on this Camino, but he did say that he’s pretty tired. We have three full days here so time for everything. 

There is a long awaited stage of walking planned for tomorrow, but I’ll save that for the next post. Nice to be back in Rome! Thanks for all the kind messages the last couple of days…really touched me! ❤️