I’m back in Transylvania. At Csíksomlyó they are replanting the gardens and extending the car parks ready for Pope Francis’s visit on June 1. The Jakab Antal hostel is already advertising a special pilgrim’s menu – green pea soup and paprika pork for 18 lei (£3.25, $4.20). The village’s Neo-Baroque church is home to a 7ft-high wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, known as the Weeping Mary, the source of many legends. The statue is venerated by Catholics from the Székelyland, the part of Transylvania that is ethnically Hungarian but has been part of Romania since 1920. Every year several hundred thousand of the faithful, many wearing colourful national dress, climb the hill behind the church for an open-air service. This year a million are expected. Some will arrive on a specially chartered steam train, but locals are fearful of chaotic scenes on the country roads that lead to the pilgrimage site.