Chronicle of Sunday 17 August

Dear parents, grandparents, friends and the rest of the pilgrims,

First goal of this pilgrimage, achieved. After more than 300 kilometres covered, 15 days and lots of blisters pierced with needle and thread, we have reached Assisi. The stage was long, but not especially hard, except for the final climb, which left more than one of us breathless. Along the way, Nacho was interviewing the people he met while Miguel captured the moments with the digital camera.

Assisi is beautiful. Its winding little streets look as if they came out of a classic fairy tale. Among little houses, small aqueducts and bridges between buildings, you can find many churches, each more beautiful than the last.

On arriving in the city of peace, we were able to pray for a while before the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, whom the Pope will canonise on 7 September, following the miraculous healing of a child who lived in poverty in a shack in the favelas of Brazil. Blessed Carlo Acutis rests in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, right opposite the hostel where some of the pilgrims are sleeping. After a lunch of Bimbo sliced bread and local cold meats, the pilgrims enjoyed a well-deserved rest, impatient to see the rest of the group, who were arriving today.

The pilgrims joining the pilgrimage today gathered as their flights arrived at Fiumicino airport. Once they were all there, they took a coach that brought them to where the rest of the group was. During the journey, they prayed the rosary, did the spiritual reading and had conversations as interesting as which type of interest rate is better for a mortgage or whether, when you go to university, it’s more worthwhile to study or to make new friends.

The pilgrims welcomed with great joy the brave ones who joined today to continue our way to Rome. All together we celebrated Holy Mass in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a church whose entrance is a Roman temple from 40 BC. After the Eucharist, we strolled through the streets of the town centre to the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, where we took the first photo of the whole group, which we attach here.

Dinner today consisted of wonderful macaroni with tomato, chicken with potatoes and a delicious tiramisu for pudding, which we had amid laughter, anecdotes and questions between the pilgrims who have just arrived and those who have spent these last two weeks here. The arrival of this new group brings a lot to our pilgrimage, and there is a growing atmosphere of fraternity and unity among us.

We ended the day as always, praying Compline as a family and then going to rest holding Our Lady’s hand, ready to enjoy the day the Lord has prepared for us tomorrow.