{"id":5352,"date":"2025-12-01T16:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=5352"},"modified":"2025-12-03T07:23:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:23:56","slug":"st-luke-pilgrimage-to-italy-day-3-november-12th-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=5352","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 3 \u2014 November 12th, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Group tours typically include a breakfast buffet in the hotel, and today’s buffet offered a wide variety of savory and sweet choices. We ate early, because on this day, we would have an audience with the pope. We knew that it wouldn’t be a private audience between us and the \u00a0pope, but rather, a general audience. We wanted to arrive early, because enormous crowds were expected. At 7 AM, we were ready to board our bus.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Our driver, Stefano, drove as close as he could get to our destination. \u00a0We left the bus and walked ahead, joining \u00a0a very \u00a0crowded “line” that led \u00a0to Piazza San Pietro, the public plaza in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. November is not typically a crowded month in \u00a0Rome, but because this is a Jubilee Year, many Romans wanted to be there, \u00a0as well as tourists from around the world. \u00a0After waiting \u00a0for what seemed like several hours, we were led into the piazza itself. The piazza can hold up to 300,000 people. We don’t know exactly how many \u00a0were part of the sea of humanity in the piazza that morning, but there were definitely many thousands.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier I mentioned \u00a0that I sometimes have an inflammation called angular cheilitis, the symptom of which is a scab where the upper and lower lips meet. I have never heard of anyone else who experienced this condition, but there I was in Piazza San Pietro, and the person next to me had a scab where her upper and lower lips met. What were the odds of that happening?<\/p>\n

There were \u00a0driving lanes within the piazza for the “popemobile” to make its way through the multitude. In this way, \u00a0His Holiness can get reasonably close to many in the crowd. Those of us near the fence could get a clear view of him as he was driven past us. He seemed to make eye contact with us \u00a0as he waved. I can only describe this as a very special moment.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I could understand some \u00a0of the Italian that he spoke. He addressed us as “fratelli e sorelle”, brothers and sisters. He welcomed those in the crowd from England, Ireland, Finland, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Canada and the United States of America. The \u00a0cheering crowd was deeply impressed by him and by his address, in which he said \u00a0that we \u00a0should treat each other with kindness, compassion, and respect.<\/p>\n

After his address, the crowd dispersed. \u00a0We thought the plan was for our group \u00a0to meet at 1 PM for lunch. We decided to get a snack at a nearby \u00a0cafe, but we were still hungry. Then we found a gelato shop that was open. \u00a0We loved it!<\/p>\n

We met up with \u00a0Yogi and found that \u00a01 PM was not time for lunch, but was the time we would be starting off for the next part of the day’s adventures. \u00a0We were able to get a pistachio pastry to tide us over \u00a0before meeting our next tour guide, Adriana, who \u00a0accompanied us to our next stop, the Basilica of San Giovanni Laterano, St. John Lateran, \u00a0the Catholic “mother church” and the official seat of the pope. This basilica is dedicated \u00a0to St. John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. “Larteran” refers to Laterani, the ancient Roman \u00a0family that owned the site on which the church was built.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Father Kumar led us through the Holy Door, and once again, we were amazed by what we saw: an enormous, multi-naved interior with a gilded ceiling, a geometric floor, and many artworks including statues of the apostles.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After that, we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Saint Mary Major, \u00a0the largest Catholic Basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the burial place of Pope Francis. \"\"<\/a>The mosaics are masterworks of great art from floor to ceiling. The \u00a0church is sometimes called “Our Lady of the Snows,” because \u00a0of a snowstorm that occurred there in the summer during \u00a0fourth century AD. \u00a0I was touched to learn this, because the name of \u00a0 the church in which Nick and I were married is Our Lady of the Snows.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Darkness fell upon us. We had achieved entering three of the four Holy Doors; we had been unable to enter the holy door at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the morning, but perhaps we could do it then in the evening. \u00a0We returned to Saint Peter’s. \u00a0We were among the last \u00a0groups that were allowed to enter before closing time!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We literally had only a few minutes to take in the \u00a0magnificence of St. Peter’s. I was relieved that those in our group who had never been there before would have the opportunity to experience it. The \u00a0first unforgettable sight we saw was Michelangelo’s Piet\u00e0, a masterwork of \u00a0deep emotion known to all the world.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We had \u00a0achieved entering all four of the Holy Doors, with Father Kumar leading us in prayer all the way. I remember walking through tunnels to get back to our hotel. Many of us were out of energy after such a full day, but Father Kumar was invigorated, leading us in song.\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We returned to our hotel, and Josephine suggested that we join her for dinner. We opted to try Ristorante Massimo d’Azeglio<\/em> (opened in 1875) directly across the street from our hotel. Soon Joan and John entered the restaurant, and we suggested that they join the three of us. Regretfully, I didn’t note what we ordered, but I remember that my dinner was delicious, and my dinner companions were very happy with their meals as well.<\/p>\n

Typically, I write notes about each day’s activities before going to bed. On this night, I marveled at all those whose dedication, talents and efforts \u00a0enabled us to have had the day’s emotions and experiences.<\/p>\n

13,698 steps<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group tours typically include a breakfast buffet in the hotel, and today’s buffet offered a wide variety of savory and sweet choices. We ate early, because on this day, we would have an audience with the pope. We knew that it wouldn’t be a private audience between us and the \u00a0pope, but rather, a general … Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 3 \u2014 November 12th, 2025<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pilgrimage-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5352"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5503,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions\/5503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}