Roads led me to Rome

I can relate to the famous quote by the English Poet John Heywood that  “Rome was not built in one day.” It took decades for me see the city in Italy. Thanks to the beatification rite of Pope John Paul II this 1 May 2011, it was this force that drew me to the city where over 1 million pilgrims were at the St. Peter square at the Vatican. 

Literally I saw “all roads led to Rome.” Influx to the smallest nation of the world started as early as Saturday morning 30 April or perhaps earlier.

Edgar Allan Poe, an American author citing the decline of the city wrote centuries ago, “The glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome.” With what I have seen, to me, it is “the grandeur that is Rome.” It is history made alive.