My last day, a mere 19km plus the 1,5 km to the stage start from the hotel. The stage ends in the Vatican City. I fear the worst regarding crowds on a Saturday in the Jubilee year, but let’s see.
The day started with a good breakfast and excellent home made lemon yoghurt. I ate two of them. I chatted with a lady who worked with dogs. She was wearing a “Free dogs” t-shirt. The hotel is dog friendly, I saw at least six dogs staying at the hotel.
I soon reached the main road and a long haul along one of Rome’s main entrance road – 5km along the heavily trafficked Via Cassia, which I have more or less followed from the start of this walk. After so many days in relative fresh air, the petrol fumes were nauseating. The smell made worse by the rubbish collection points every 500m or so, which stank in the heat – 29c already at 9.30. I enjoyed the adverts for Media One in Rome as I walked along Via Cassia.
Leaving Via Cassia, just after crossing the motorway, it was a steep downhill before entering a large nature area, Insugherata, with a trail running through large parts of the nature area, lined by a wooden fence, and the houses of Rome’s suburbs high above. I was wondering why there were wet patches along the trail, when I came to part of the path that was totally flooded. So much for cleaning up my shoes for today’s visit to the Vatican – they were now muddy and wet. I met a couple from London who’d walked from Lucca, they pulled out plastic bags to cover their shoes. I didn’t see whether they more successful in keeping their shoes dry.
Leaving the nature park was via a very steep climb, a real killer in the heat. As I reached the top, other walkers had congregated in a very well placed bar. I met and thanked the couple from the US who had given me some water the other day, and chatted with a French couple who had walked last year from Northern France, and were finishing their walk this year.
It was back on heavily trafficked roads and Saturday morning life as I walked through Rome’s suburbs. I stopped for one last ice cream before climbing again, this time Monte Mario, with the first views over Rome and St. Peters church. The climb was on the dirt/stone path I have come to “hate” during this trip – but the views over Rome were fantastic.
The descent was even worse, a 100m descent over ca. 1km, on a stoned path with 16 hairpin curves. The rocks were of assorted side and the path very uneven and uncomfortable on ones feet.
With 3km remaining, I had finally reached the centre of Rome and followed Vale Angelico in a straight line towards the Vatican. There was no doubt when I was getting close, the streets were packed. It reminded me of going to football games when I was younger – everybody going in the same direction.
The stamp book for Via Francigena gives you direct access to the church, jumping the queues. But it was impossible to get anywhere near any of the entrances, there were so many people. It was chaos, nobody knowing which queue they should be in, made worse by the fact that the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s are only open during Jubilee years, attracting many people. Many had booked a timeslot to go through the doors, but I heard one lady complain that her timeslot was 3 hours earlier, but she was stuck in a queue.
I finally managed to push myself to the front of a queue and found somebody who recognised the stamp book and let me in. Next hurdle was scanning my back pack, which unfortunately contained blunt sissors, which were subsequently confiscated.
Next challenge was finding where I was to get my testimonial, certifying that I had walked more than 100kms. After more queueing and finding somebody in a green jacket, a designated helper, I was shown where to go, and subsequently received my testimonial and an obligatory picture.
After a quick wash in the nearby toilets I was allowed to walk through the jubilee door that is only open every 25 years, before taking a tour around the magnificent church. It was packed, not helped by the whole middle section being courdened off for a service. There were so many people that it wasn’t possible to walk freely around, one just had to follow the crowds.
I left the church and walked around the square in front of the church. I met a group of Danish cyclists, that had cycled from Lucca, before I walked towards what Google told me was the busstop that would take me to the airport bus. It was heavily delayed. andd when it finally arrived was totally packed. There was no way I could get on with a backpack. But when the driver opened the doors, pretty much everybody got off.
I followed the slow progress through Rome’s busy streets on Google Maps and managed to get off at the right stop, walked 50m to the next bus stop and was greeted by a man in a yellow jacket and credit card reader. I had to buy a ticket from him to get on the bus! We chatted whilst I waited for the bus, he told me that he stood there pretty much 8 hours a day, printing tickets and putting people baggage in the bus holder – so the bus driver didn’t have to waste time doing it.
It was a 30 min trip to the airport, where I checked in and had 3 hours to kill before my flight home to Denmark. I spent my time catching up on writing my blog posts.