Nick and I love traveling. We have been very fortunate to be able to take  one international trip and one domestic trip each year, when we can.  We had already enjoyed our trips to Morocco and New Orleans in 2025, and were not planning another.

We are long time parishioners of St. Luke  Church in Westport, Connecticut.  In the spring, our pastor, Father Kumar, told us about a pilgrimage to Italy that he had in mind for parishioners and their friends and family members who might be interested. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day Zero →

On Monday, November 10, we  and the other trip participants arrived at St. Luke Church  in Westport, Connecticut, at noon. The final member of the group to arrive was Fr. Kumar, who was working until the last minute.  One group member, Donna, had made arrangements for two vans to pick us up and take us to JFK Airport, Terminal 4, Delta Airlines. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 1 — November 10th, 2025 →

The first leg of our flight took us to Amsterdam at 7 AM, (1 AM our time) and from there, we needed to get to the right gate for  our plane to Rome. Our arrival in Amsterdam and our departure  to Rome were at different parts of the airport,  requiring us to hurry  to reach  the gate of our second flight on time. The Passport Control officer asked me, “Are you in a church group?” Nick replied, “Yes she is, and I’m her husband.” We reached the gate on time, and we learned that the flight to Rome would take less than two hours. Soon we were in our tour bus heading for Rome! Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 2 — November 11th, 2025 →

Group tours typically include a breakfast buffet in the hotel, and today’s buffet offered a wide variety of savory and sweet choices. We ate early, because on this day, we would have an audience with the pope. We knew that it wouldn’t be a private audience between us and the  pope, but rather, a general audience. We wanted to arrive early, because enormous crowds were expected. At 7 AM, we were ready to board our bus.

Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 3 — November 12th, 2025 →

This was a travel day for us. We would be spending much of the day on our bus, heading south to Naples. The scenery from the bus included  natural elements such as cypress trees and olive groves, and human-made elements such as ancient ruins.  We pulled over at an Autogrill for a brief rest stop, and then later, at another Autogrill, for a lunch break. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 4 — November 13th, 2025 →

After breakfast (Nick chose a fruit tart and I, granola, that again, was not like I make it at home, but was enjoyable), we were back on the bus. It’s likely that you knew  that  Pompeii was a buried  city, but did you know that it was a city within the city of Pompei? We didn’t.

The Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei is a major Catholic pilgrimage site that was  founded by Bartolo Longo in 1876.  A cathedral that was built to house a painting of the Madonna, the sanctuary has grown into a papal basilica famous for hosting large crowds. We were absolutely amazed by the mosaics it held. We joined many of the people in the pews as they prayed the rosary. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 5 — November 14th, 2025 →

On this day, we left Naples and headed across Italy to San Giovanni Rotondo, 140 miles away. We passed many  wind farms that are successful in creating renewable energy, and of course, olive groves that are known around the world for their oil. At today’s lunch stop, I thoroughly enjoyed arancini, rice balls that have been stuffed with meat or cheese and then deep fried, while Nick was happy with his wrap containing prosciutto, cheese, and arugula. We reached  San Giovanni Rotondo, the town in which San Padre Pio lived. Many groups need hotel  lodging in the town, and we were lucky to find one that could accommodate us. We stayed at a small but comfortable pilgrimage hotel, Albergo Villa Bianca. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 6 — November 15th, 2025 →

We were impressed by the croissants that were served for breakfast. They were large, flaky, and memorable.

I am not sure when we began saying the Rosary together while we were on the bus, but once we began, we said it together on the bus  each morning that followed. Stefano drove our bus  north along the east coast of Italy to Lanciano, the site of the first recorded Eucharistic miracle. The following is from our tour flier: ” According to tradition, a monk who had doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist found that when he said the words of consecration at mass, the bread and wine changed into flesh and blood.” Father Kumar was able to celebrate  a very meaningful mass  just for us in the room where the  miracle happened. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 7 — November 16th, 2025 →

Many people think Saint Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of Italy. However, our guide (whose name I didn’t make note of, regretfully) told us that  in addition to being the protector of animals and of the environment, Saint Francis is a patron saint of Italy (along with St. Catherine of Siena). Saint Anthony is the patron of lost things, but the  lost  things may be physical  or abstract, such as love, faith,  hope,  or peace. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 8 — November 17th, 2025 →

We awoke early and went downstairs to breakfast. The buffet  area was crowded and confused.  It filled a large room that had dozens of  tables, but  all of them seem to have  reservation cards, reserving them for  groups from Mexico and Brazil. Weaving our way through them, we found a table without a reservation card and held it for our group. We ate as quickly as we could, because there would be so much to see  and do on this day. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 9 — November 18th, 2025 →

Today’s breakfast was much more pleasant than that of the day before! I saw a table that had the reservation sign “USA”, and I took it for our group. However, the breakfast offerings were not up to par. The eggs tasted artificial, and the bacon was undercooked.  I selected tea, yogurt, and canned fruit.

After breakfast, we were back on the bus. Today we went to the Basilica of Saint  Anthony of Padua, which features art by Donatello. Although he died in Padua,  it is surprising to find out that Saint Anthony was born in Lisbon. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 10 — November 19th, 2025 →

On this day, Nick posted a copy of the birthday card, he made for me, to  our trip mates. It contains a  current photo of us, and one taken during the year we met. Today was indeed a day for us to look back at the time we have spent together,  because it was our 49th anniversary. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 11 — November 20th, 2025 →

Today we would return to Rome. We were on a 7-8-9 schedule: awake at 7, breakfast at 8, departure at 9. Our bus took us through the breathtaking landscapes of Tuscany: rolling hills, cypress trees, vineyards, and medieval towns. As we reached Rome, some of our friends left the bus to see a few of  the city’s most famous sights, including the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Having seen them before, we had planned a different destination: the Galleria Borghese. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 12 — November 21st, 2025 →

Nick took one last photo from the bus on the way to the Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport. Continue reading St. Luke Pilgrimage to Italy, Day 13 — November 22nd, 2025 →

Here are the annotated photos from our trip: https://pisarro.org/Pilgrimage25.

We visited the Galleria Borghese in Rome: https://pisarro.org/GalleriaBorghese.

Coming:

• Video excerpts of our trip