The Sisters had a special trip to Italy. They visited family, friends, their home convent in Rome, the Sanctuary of St. Gabriel near the city of Pescara, the village of Manoppello and a church known as Santuario del Volto Santo (Sanctuary of the Holy Face). The Sisters also hiked up an old overgrown path to the village where Sister Bernardetta lived as a child. This village is Cesa di Francia in the region of Abruzzo - some 72 miles north-east of Rome. She had not been back there since she entered the convent when she was 13 ½ years old. She also got to see “her mountain” - Gran Sasso.
