Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please come around, something is lost that must be found.

What is lost? Me in this post.

I’ve labored over it for weeks. I finally had my husband proof it for me, and well, it sucked. All 581 words of it.

In that post, I was going to tell you the story of how unique I am.  How most people, when visiting Rome, want to see the colosseum.

 

Or St. Peter’s Square.

 

Or maybe take a day trip to Pompeii.

 

But all I really wanted was a day trip to see the little town of San Giovanni Rotondo where Saint Padre Pio lived out his days.

 

I was going to tell you that San Giovanni Rotondo is visited each year by a whopping 7 million people, which makes me not so unique, and makes Padre Pio’s shrine the second most visited shrine in the world second only to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 

I was going to tell you how easy it is to take a train there from Rome, but we didn’t do that.

Instead, we took a train to Naples where we rented a car – which I’m pretty sure is the ONLY thing EVERY guide book about Italy tells you NEVER to do – don’t drive in NAPLES! EVER!

 

We arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo at 4 p.m.

I was going to tell you that there is a bus from Rome to San Giovanni Rotondo that arrives at 11:30 a.m. But we didn’t take it.

 

I was going to tell you how we arrived there just in time for an English mass with a group of pilgrims from Ireland. Which was nice.

I was going to tell you we passed some steps on the way to the mass that led to the pilgrim church at the top of the hill that holds 6,500 people. But we didn’t go.

I was going to tell you there are a lot of hotels in this town. But we didn’t stay in any of them.

Instead we drove back to Naples. Did I tell you that you really shouldn’t drive in NAPLES?

Did I mention that San Giovanni Rotondo is 14 miles from The Adriatic Sea? But we didn’t go.

Did I tell you there is a cave just 15 miles away where Saint Michael the Archangel appeared? Yeah, we didn’t go there either.

Did my husband tell me there is a sign (in Italian) that says no picture taking in the shrine? NO, he didn’t!

 

Did I tell my husband to take care of the reservations for this portion of the trip? YES, I did. But he didn’t do it.

Did I tell you I’m going back to Padre Pio’s shrine? But my husband isn’t going.

Did I tell you that I’m really glad my husband told me my article sucked? But I’m not going to tell him.