Padre Pio and St. Michael the Archangel Private Tour from Rome

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. Rome represents the starting point but also the end of the tour , because there will be 4 hours of driving time to get in San Giovanni Rotondo, then 25 minutes to get in Monte Sant Angelo and then almost 5 hours to come back. There’s the restroom stop each 2 hours from Rome to San Giovanni Rotondo.

   Passes by

2. After the death of Padre Pio, the Saint’s friars thought of constructing a new church, because too sensitive to the material and spiritual needs of the devotees, that the existing church could not contain. After the presentation of several projects, Friars entrusted the design of a new church to the architect Renzo Piano, so that it could accommodate 6,500 people. For its size it is the second largest church in Italy, after St. Peter's Church in Rome.

   2 hAdmission included

3. Long dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie, the new Sanctuary conceived by Renzo Piano occupies – with its enormous conch-shell structure - and represents the second-largest church in Italy after Milan's Duomo. Finally opened after ten years of construction, and also known as the Church of St. Pio, the new Sanctuary was almost entirely financed by the offerings of pilgrims. Today it can hold up to 6,500 people at once.

   2 hAdmission included

4. Long dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie, the new Sanctuary conceived by Renzo Piano occupies – with its enormous conch-shell structure - and represents the second-largest church in Italy after Milan's Duomo. Finally opened after ten years of construction, and also known as the Church of St. Pio, the new Sanctuary was almost entirely financed by the offerings of pilgrims. Today it can hold up to 6,500 people at once.

   1 hAdmission included

5. San Michele Pilgrimage Shrine consists of the original Sanctuary of the Archangel Michael in a grotto and the crypt and devotional museums. To find the shrine as the octagonal bell tower, built in the 13th century, rises above the town of Monte Sant' Angelo on Puglia's Gargano Promontory. From the small square by the bell tower, pilgrims and tourists pass through the Gothic arches of San Michele. Descending the long stone staircase constructed in the 13th century (or elevator for the disabled), visitors arrive in the nave with frescoes and murals. On the Bronze doors, made in 1076 in Constantinople, are 24 panels depicting Bible scenes. The doors lead to the cave of Saint Michael. The Sanctuary of the Archangel Michael, or San Michele, in the grotto dates from the 5th - 6th centuries and is the site where devotion to the Archangel Michael began. The original grotto of San Michele is said to have been consecrated by the archangel and is the only church not consecrated by human hands.

   1 hAdmission included

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 20 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Know before you go

How it compares in Rome

• Its from-price is 150% above the median of the 984 day trips we list in Rome.
• It is longer than most of them.
• By number of reviews it ranks 112 of 984.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About Rome

Rome layers nearly three thousand years of history into one walkable city, from the Colosseum and Forum to Baroque piazzas and Vatican art.

Ancient Rome is still in plain sight. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill sit together at the city's heart, the Pantheon still stands with its open oculus, and fragments of temples and aqueducts turn up between apartment blocks. Across the Tiber, Vatican City holds St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Top-ranked sights in Rome: Colosseum, Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel.

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