First stop -- Pope John XXIII's birthplace

It's a tiny village, Sotto il Monte, -- under the mountains -- in  the he far north of Italy. And it's the birthplace of Pope John XXIII.
Our first stop was the church where he was baptized and later said Mass, but we also stopped at the family home in the village.

We had a wonderful tour of the rustic, courtyard house where he lived with 30 family members until he went to seminary at age 11.

Our guide for much of the tour was Father Giulio Mariani, PIME. A seminary for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions is behind the old house, and is a repository of thousands of pieces of memorabilia relating to Pope John XXIII. The statue (left of Father Mariani) has a tradition -- and a shiny spot -- much like the statue of Lincoln's nose in Springfield, Illinois. Pilgrims, including those on our trip, rub the hand and forearm of the life-size statue.

But, by the time we had a wonderful lunch at the village's new cultural center about their native son and saint, got into a bus and drove six hours south to our destination, most of us had been awake for 24 hours or longer. I'll add details about the rest of the day later.

--Sharon Boehlefeld from Tuscany in Italy