Montecatini Val di Cecina
Domine, Quo Vadis?

A long time ago, Peter ended up in the woods of Montalpruno. He was trying to protect himself by hiding amid the trees so he could escape from the guards who followed him through all the provinces of the Empire. Peter had escaped from the Roman jails of Mamertino. But he wasn’t just any old fugitive—not your classic bandit who attempted to avoid the nearby via Aurelia and its stop points—but in any case, he was still a fugitive and tried to hide himself amid the fronds and brambles of those forests. According to legend, one day an astonishing vision appeared to Peter in Poggi Sassa (still today, close to the Botro della Canonica, you’ll spot some ruins covered by plants). He asked the apparition a question destined to go down in history: “Domine, quo Vadis?” (Where are you going?) In front of Peter—the future St. Peter in the Christian tradition—stood Jesus Christ, who responded, “Roma, ut interim crucifigar” (“To Rome, to be crucified a second time”).

Caught off guard by those sharp words, and feeling shame as he faced the Redeemer, Peter decided to return to Rome toward his destiny of persecution. In their meeting place, an eternal memory remains: the imprint of the foot of Christ, impressed on a stone alongside the road.