Pilgrims, believers, monks, famous personalities and common people arrive at San Giovanni Rotondo to pray and give homage to the remains of the friar with the stigmata.

The square in front of the Sanctuary, the avenue that leads to the Convent, the colours of the Manfredonia sea, the vegetation around Monte Castellana are the truest frame to the mystic aura that surrounds Padre Pio.

It is said that on the Gargano, God has smiled twice on the sky and on the earth. He smiled for the grace, the miracle, the traces of sanctity – started in the V century with the apparitions of San Michele in Montesantangelo – the visit of San Francesco, the conversion of San Camillo, and finally Padre Pio.

But the smile of faith is accompanied by nature: kilometres of jagged coastline, the awe-inspiring Mattinata stacks, the marine caves in Vieste, the lake fauna.

In San Giovanni Rotondo, the walls of the ancient Convent, the white marbles of the House, relief from suffering, the Sanctuary that envelops the cave in San Michele are witness to the passage of men and the history of a Saint.