Rome has a particular welcome for the married. Newly married couples can attend the Pope’s Wednesday general audience as sposi novelli, sitting in a reserved section in their wedding clothes to receive his blessing; tickets are free. Assisi, afterward, is small enough to be quiet in the evening, when the day visitors have gone and the two of you can sit in a church or walk the walls.
Lisieux and Alençon in Normandy are the pilgrimage of a married couple who became saints together. Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse, married in Alençon in 1858 and were canonized together in 2015; their relics are venerated in the basilica at Lisieux. The Camino suits couples before marriage or at a turning point: five or six days of walking side by side, with a cathedral at the end. At Cana, the Franciscan shrine of Christ’s first miracle, pilgrim couples commonly renew their marriage promises with the priest traveling with their group. That depends on the Holy Land being open to pilgrims, so read the U.S. State Department advisory first.
Good to know before you go: a couple needs a shared table as much as a shared pew, so look for an itinerary with free evenings and few hotel changes. Where one of you is Catholic and the other is not, both are welcome at every Mass and shrine. For an anniversary, tell the priest or organizer early; a blessing is simple to arrange when it is planned and awkward when it is sprung on someone.
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