Day 3 cont…

… We left off with your blog author traipsing all about Rome. It’s dusk now and at this point and I decided to take a few photos of all the pilgrims getting settled in for the Beatification the following morning. Heading back down the Via Conciliazione toward the square the atmosphere was electric. It was a huge street party.

I was privileged to spend part of my evening with these fine gentleman from the Institute of the Incarnate Word in Segui, Rome.

Patriotic national anthems filled the air, excited laughter, and smells. Oh, the smells. Sweating filthy pilgrims. God bless ’em.

I am well passed the age of sleeping in the street. There was nothing at all appealing about sleeping here when I had a cushy bed in a cozy flat just a quick train ride away. I know! I make a terrible pilgrim.

Day 3 was exhausting but I savored every minute. I also learned that I love traveling alone. Admittedly, I as a sat buzzed on nervous adrenaline during the flight over, I was more than a little freaked at the thought of visiting a foreign city alone and not knowing the language. I would be staying with some one I only knew through blog writings… and that “some one” being Hilary White intimidated me immensely. What if she hated me or worse, made me cry?

Traveling alone freed me to go where I wanted and linger for hours on end. I never dined alone and made instant friends with mutual travelers. I even met a woman from my church at Torre Argentina. The world just a got a little smaller. When people found out I was traveling alone the reaction was always the same, “Bravo!”.

Bravo, indeed.