Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII

In the footsteps of the Good Pope at the foot of Monte Canto

The birthplace of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli changed its name in 1963 precisely to pay tribute to the passing of one of the most beloved popes in Church history: Pope John XXIII.

Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII has become a cult stage for those who loved the 'good pope', beatified in 2000 and then canonised four years later, in an overflowing St. Peter's Square the same place where he uttered his famous words in 1962: "On your way home give your children a caress and say: this is the Pope's caress".

You can set off from the modest farmstead where the future pontiff was born on 25 November 1881 and lived until the age of ten. In the crypt of the parish church there is a bronze cast of his face and hand made immediately after his death by the sculptor Giacomo Manzù and a wooden and ivory crucifix that Pope Roncalli himself had wanted in his bedroom.

At the end of the day, treat yourself to a romantic walk in nearby Bergamo: in just a 20-minute drive, you can find the tower of San Giovanni and the bell tower of the parish church of Sotto il Monte from a privileged vantage point: that of the upper city, or rather, Berghem de Hura.