Pilgrimage

To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. 

- Pope Benedict XVI, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela November 6, 2010

My Italian pilgrimage was something like that. Very providential.