Ancient Pilgrims

• The root of the Italian term pellegrino comes from the Latin word peregrinator, meaning someone who travels about. The ancient Romans made pilgrimages to such holy places as Cumae outside modern-day Naples and Delphi in Greece where it was said the gods spoke through an oracle or sibyl and revealed to the pilgrims their destiny.
  
  

Christian Shrines

• As the home of many saints and the guardian of many sacred relics, Italy has attracted Christian pilgrims for at least 1,500 years. To this day, pilgrims travel to Rome to pray at the tombs of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, or to Loreto where what is believed to be the house of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is preserved inside a grand basilica, or to Turin where a length of cloth said to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ is enshrined in a chapel in the cathedral.
  
  

A Political Pilgrimage

• Religious believers are not the only pilgrims. Italian neo-fascists make an annual pilgrimage to Predappio in north-central Italy where the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) is buried.
  
  

Mineral Water

• Near the Church of San Pellegrino in Val Brembana, not far from the city of Bergamo in northern Italy, is a spring that is also known as San Pellegrino. At least since the 16th century, travelers have come to Val Brembana to bathe in the spring and drink from it, believing the minerals in the water have curative powers. By 1899, the mineral water was being bottled and sold in Italy as well as overseas. Today, consumers who drink mineral water are more likely to do so for its refreshing flavor than for any medicinal purpose. In 2005, San Pellegrino mineral water achieved a new milestone with sales of 500 million bottles.
  
  

Patron Saint

• St. Pellegrino Laziosi, also known as St. Peregrine (1260-1345), was a Catholic priest who served parishioners in the Italian city of Siena. He was afflicted with cancer in his foot. By the time the disease was diagnosed it had progressed so far that a surgeon felt he had no alternative but to amputate. The night before his scheduled surgery, Pellegrino had a vision of the Jesus Christ who touched his diseased foot and miraculously healed him of his cancer. Because of this experience, Catholics venerate St. Pellegrino as the patron saint of cancer patients.