Reflections on this year’s pilgrimage to Italy
Reflections written from a hotel near Milan airport on the final night of this year’s pilgrimage to Italy — saints visited, relics venerated, museums explored, and beautiful meals shared across Rome, Assisi, Bologna, Turin and beyond. (4 min read)
I am writing this from my hotel near MXP aeroport. Tomorrow I fly home via Thailand because it was the simplest and most affordable way to avoid the Middle East.
I’ve had a lovely trip but have been much more diverted by news in the Middle East these last weeks which has diminished the experience a little.
I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to connect with all the saints in their shrines and to havemy rosaries blessed. Here’s this year’s list of saints interceding for me:
- Ignatius of Loyola, Francisco Xavier (Gesu)
- Aloysius de Gonzaga, Carlo Borromeo (Church of St Ignatius)
- Peter (Vatican)
- John the Baptist (San Sylvester Capite)
- Francesco d’Assisi (Rome; Assisi; Gubbio; Foligno; Cordona; Padova)
- Chiara d’Assisi (Assisi)
- Carlo Acutis (Assisi)
- Caterina d’Siena (Rome; Siena)
- Caterina d’Bologna (Church of Corpus Christi, Bologna)
- Dominic (Bologna)
- Antonio d’Padova (Padova)
- Don Bosco (Turin)
- Dominic Savio (Turin)
- Francoise de Sales (Treviso; Annecy)
- Jane de Chantal (Annecy)
I also appreciated the passion relics (Croce, Padova, Siena, Pisa, Cortona), the mystical crucifixes (Assisi, Siena) and the tomb of Pope Francis. And I also saw wonderful mosaics in Rome.
I saw a large number of churches on this trip, as well as several civic buildings with incredible architecture and painted interiors.
I visited more than a dozen museums, Including four in Pisa, two in Turin, three in Gubbio and one in Perugia, Siena and Bologna. I skipped the chocolate museum in Perugia!
Despite the Lenten period, and fasting from coffee and sweets, I had many beautiful meals.
In Italy there are lovely little books about the main saints for kids. I couldn’t resist these and I got so much joy from observing Kaito’s curiosity and attention to these stories.
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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