The Day I Crossed Borders — Monaco, F1, and the Joy of Being Alive

The Day I Crossed Borders — Monaco, F1, and the Joy of Being Alive

My Hail Mary Diary Day 65

“Take with you a commitment to stay awake and, as ‘artisans of hope’, to keep on building the worksite of our time.” — Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas

Multiple Borders. One Extraordinary Day.

Today I crossed borders.

Not just the geographic kind — though I crossed those too, moving from Rome to Nice to Monaco in a single day, watching the landscape shift from eternal city to azure coast to the most glamorous postage stamp of a country on earth.

But also the invisible kind. The borders between work and play. Between the pilgrim in St. Peter’s Square and the woman going to the F1 Grand Prix. Between the civilizational thinker and the person who simply, completely, joyfully wants to be alive in the world.

Today I was all of these things at once.

And it felt wonderful.

Rome to Nice

I left Rome today carrying everything the last few days had given me.

Assisi and the bells. St. Peter’s Square and the evening clouds. The espresso in the flowery coffee shop and the pizza by the Emperor’s bath tub. The friend who showed me his Rome. The partners whose conversations felt miraculous.

All of it folded into me as the plane lifted over the Italian countryside and the coast appeared below, that first glimpse of the Mediterranean, blue and impossibly bright, the kind of blue that makes you understand why humans have been drawn to this part of the world for thousands of years.

Nice appeared like a painting. And then we took a bus to Monaco.

Monaco

There are places in the world that should not exist, that are too perfect, too concentrated, too improbable to be real. Monaco is one of them.

A tiny principality tucked between France and the sea, where mountains drop almost directly into the water and every available surface has been made into something beautiful. The harbor full of yachts. The streets lined with buildings that look like they were designed specifically to be admired.

The scenery, the harbor below, the mountains above, the Mediterranean stretching out beyond the barriers, makes it feel less like a sporting event and more like a scene from a dream.

The People

But what made today extraordinary was not the race or the scenery.

It was the people.

Old friends — the ones who feel like family regardless of how long it has been since you last saw each other. New friends — the ones you meet in a place like this and immediately recognize as your kind of people. Wonderful people, all of them, filling the day with laughter and warmth and the particular joy that comes from being in a remarkable place with remarkable company.

This is what travel gives you at its best. Not just the places. The people in the places. The conversations that happen when you are all somewhere extraordinary together, when the usual barriers are down and everyone is simply present and alive and grateful.

I felt that today. Completely.

Crossing Borders

I want to say one more thing about crossing borders — because I think it is something worth naming.

I have spent thirty years crossing borders. Between China and America. Between East and West. Between the worlds of business and culture, of faith and policy, of the local and the global.

Every border I cross teaches me something. That the world is larger than any single perspective. That the things that seem most different are often most alike beneath the surface. That humanity, wherever you find it, is recognizable — curious, joyful, searching, alive.

Today I crossed from Rome to Nice to Monaco. From the ancient to the contemporary. From pilgrimage to Grand Prix. From the sacred to the exuberant.

And I felt, in all of it, the same thing.

Blessed. Grateful. Completely alive.

Looking forward to more fun tomorrow. 🏎️🌊🙏

My Hail Mary Diary is where I will share the stories, the memories, the ideas, and the pilgrimages that the book could only begin to hold. A new piece, every single day!

Jing Zhao Cesarone is a civilizational leader and global impact architect exploring the invisible forces that shape leadership, humanity, and the future. She is the Founder and CEO of the Global CSR Foundation and the author of Women’s Civilizational Leadership: A New Paradigm for the Golden Age of Humanity, an Amazon #1 New Release in General Gender Studies and Top 10 in Social Policy.