The Gargano Peninsula & Tremiti Islands

Manfredonia's tourist office has general Gargano information; the Gargano towns have banded together on the Internet at www.gargano.it (in Italian).

• By car: Follow the SS89, which runs from Foggia to Manfredonia then skirts the ultrascenic Gargano coastline.
• By train: To Foggia, there are 6 daily trains from Rome (4–5 hr.); 8 daily trains from Naples (100–175 min.); and half-hourly trains from Bari (67–100 min.).
• Buses from Foggia: Between the companies Ferrovie del Gargano (tel. 0881-772-491 or toll-free 167-296-247) and SITA (tel. +39-0881-773-117), there are 21 buses (3 Sunday) from Foggia's train station to Manfredonia (45 min.). Six of them continue on to Vieste (another 85 min.). From Manfredonia there are 18 SITA buses (5 Sunday) up to Monte Sant'Angelo (40–60 min.), 3 of which (none Sunday) come direct from Foggia.

The last full week of each September (the official Feast Day is Sept 23), Apulia celebrates one of Italy's newest (and most popular) saints—a local boy, healer, and general do-gooder officially called St. Pio of Pietrelcina since he was cannonoized in 2002, but more commonly known as Padro Pio. Padre Pio devoted his life to healing the sick, performed a few miracles, and even received the stigmata before he died in 1969. Rooms anywhere on the Gargano Peninsula can be hard to come by at this time of year as busloads of the faithful flock to Pio's church and tomb in San Giovanni Rotondo and to other shrine towns such as Monte Sant'Angelo.