Aurelio

Awake early. Not over-excitement. Whoever lives upstairs leaves for work at 5.30am. A lot of walking backwards and forwards, initially in bare feet but later in shoes. Not a problem given my planned timetable but might have been annoying to the old me.

One slight oddity before I left. The owner had given me a wee tour when I arrived which had included the fancy pod-type coffee thingy. But when I tried to use it, using the cup advised, the machine obviously expected a more substantial cup. Coffee everywhere. Hence I was quite awake when I left but more from having to sort the mess than the caffeine that I was hoping for.

In the main square by 6.25am. 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Found a bar for the required cappuccino/chocolate cornetto (only taken me 6 weeks of daily consumption to twig that in Italy a croissant is a cornetto).

Sunrise is 7.10am but helped I suspect by some cloud cover it was easily light enough by my 6.40am departure.

A strange day’s walking. Half of it was beside increasingly busy roads and the other half in sheep pastures, a Nature Reserve and a Park. When in the Italian green belt it felt incredibly countrified, even though it finished within a couple of miles of Saint Peter’s.

Took advantage of a bar after about 10 miles. Very odd to have completed that much before 10am. Had another Italian sandwich. These are strange things to the British eye. I had avoided them for ages as they were large, white bread dods that I thought would be stale as hell. Thinking a really bad supermarket sandwich. In fact they appear to be made fresh each day by the bar selling them and the filling is actually spread throughout the sandwich, not just at the cut edge as per UK. Mighty fine and a sandwich plus a litre and a half sparkling water can be had for 4€.

No sign of any other pilgrims until I reached downtown Rome when I came upon a bunch of 5. Didn’t speak to them of course but judging by their gear and their age I very much doubted they had walked from Canterbury. They were nearer a third my age than a half and I doubt had 3 months to waste going for a mighty long walk.

I had spent ages trying to work out the logistics of arriving in Rome. I wanted to get the Testimonium which you could get from an office which shut at 5pm. I wanted to see round St Peter’s again and it shut at 6.30pm but you couldn’t take backpacks in and you couldn’t wear shorts. My hotel was about a mile and a half away from Saint Peter’s. My plan was to arrive early enough to get the Testimonium, get to the hotel, change and get back to Saint Peter’s. By then the notorious queue should have died down.

Arrived before 3pm. Told that the system had changed. I now got the Testimonium inside Saint Peter’s. But there was a special entrance for pilgrims and a toilet just beside it where I could change into the required long trousers. So here’s a wee tip for those going to Rome. If you have a pilgrim's credential you can skip the whole of a horrendous queue and just walk in.

The biggest anti-climax was the actual getting of the Testimonium. Much is made of the requirement for having walked or cycled so many miles, having stamps for every day etc but what it now comes down to is the cloakroom assistant who checks in and out the large bags, coats etc will write anyone’s name on a Testimonium sheet of paper. He isn’t interested in anything. Just tell him your name and you will get a Testimonium. Bit of an anti-climax but I didn’t really need someone gushing about how amazing that I had walked so far.

And that is about that. Wandered round Saint Peter’s which is just the most incredible building. I can’t think of anywhere which so successfully makes you feel like you are an ant. Just tiny and insignificant. Which I suppose was what was intended.

Thanks for sticking with me on my journey. It has been amazing and not one I will be in a rush to repeat.

But you never know…..Read more