Last Day in Rome and Then Home

Our last day in Rome (Thursday, October 29) was a free day for exploring on our own. Father Nathan offered to lead a walk through parts of Rome where he'd lived and studied, and many pilgrims opted to set out with him while others took off for shopping and lunch on their own.

In the afternoon, most of us had signed up for an optional tour of the Vatican Archives, so we met at a cafe on the main street, and our tour guide escorted us to St. Anne's Gate, a controlled entrance to the Vatican proper -- meaning, the non-tourist area where day-to-day business is conducted. It was all very "official," and our tour guide herself was excited and impressed to be inside the walls of the Vatican. 

We were split into two groups for the tour. We were first each given a locker and instructed to lock up all our belongings, including purses and backpacks. Our guide said we could take phones or small cameras that could fit in our pockets, and no photos were allowed until the end of the tour. Our guide, Carl, a tall, handsome German young man, was very lively and passionate about the Church archives, which came across throughout our tour. 

He informed us that there are 50 miles of archive shelves in an upstairs room called "the bunker." He took us there, and it is indeed a stark, huge, dimly lit concrete room containing endless shelves filled with documents. After seeing the bunker, we started climbing a winding staircase that seemed as though it was leading to a lighthouse. Fortunately, the staircase was broken up along the way with several rooms containing interesting artwork. We also saw the Tower of the Winds where the Gregorian calendar was "invented." (I'm not sure if "invented" is quite the right word, but it's where it was studied and its accuracy was confirmed. The explanation is too long to go into, but it was very interesting and dates back to the 14th century.)

After that, we continued to climb the winding staircase. It was a hard climb for most of us -- I'm not sure about the total number of steps, but I think I heard someone say upwards of 400. After reaching the top of the staircase, our guide asked one of the pilgrims, Carol Parkos, to throw open the double doors that we found there. We gasped as we saw the view from the balcony. We were at the second highest point in the Vatican with only the dome of St. Peter's being higher. This was the one place where we were allowed to take pictures.

After returning to the hotel, we were on our own for dinner and returned to the hotel fairly early to prepare for our departure from the hotel at 3:15 AM the next morning.

Isabella, our tour guide, accompanied us to the Rome airport in the morning and managed to get a line open just for us to expedite the check-in process. We said our last goodbyes to her and expressed our gratitude for taking such good care of us throughout the trip. 

Our flights were all on time and uneventful -- although very long, of course. We arrived safely in Reno around 9:00 PM on Friday, after about 24 hours of travel, with many photos and memories of an unforgettable pilgrimage with Father Nathan. Thanks to you all for reading our blog and for your kind comments and feedback. Ciao!