We bought a small town house in Pietrelcina in 2006/8, well before we closed our language school. Our intention was to use it as a quiet place to stay to for a few weeks during our retirement years. It was also because it was a place of prayer, the birth-place of St. Padre Pio and linked to our membership of the Franciscan Third Order. Getting this small house in the centre of the town, was helped by contacting Brother Lorenzo 
In 2006, we contacted Fra Lorenzo who who we had met in Pietrelcina, was now in Foggia. At the age of fifty, I joined the Padre Pio group in a pilgrimage from London supervised by Anna Ley, one of the helpers from the Padre Pio Centre in Whitstable, Kent. The boys were with us, and Ursula and I enjoyed a few weeks in the company of people who were devoted to Padre Pio.
When we all arrived in Pietrelcina, I met Fra Lorenzo in the convent, and I mentioned how much I loved Pietrelcina and how sorry I was to leave it. Fra Lorenzo turned to me and assured me that I would be back many times.
So, as I previously mentioned, we contacted Fra Lorenzo and told him we wanted to buy a house in Pietrelcina and could he help. We met him in San Giovanni in the east of Italy, 200 km away from Pietrelcina, and he very kindly drive Ursula and I to Pietrelcina where he introduced us to Vincenzo at Il-Sannio and the rest of his family.
This turned out to be the beginning of a new journey in our lives. Vincenzo very kindly introduced us to Michele Cardona, a local builder and Nicola, a wonderful architect. We went to an Estate Agent to start our search, but nothing seemed to be right for us and we came back with nothing in our sights. However, Vincenzo promised he would keep an eye out for something good and would contact us when he had found it. About nine months later, we got a telephone call from him in Malta telling us to come and bring a 10% deposit as he had found the right house. He sent us some photos of a dilapidated stone building right in the center of the town, just off the main piazza and about 100 meters from the parish church and the family home of Padre Pio. Fortunately, we trusted him, and in God’s leading, and set off immediately. We returned to Malta the following week with a promise of sale in our hand and an assurance from Vincenzo that he would personally keep an eye of the refurbishment process. He was as good as his word, and over the next year and a half, we visited Pietrelcina to see the progress while the house was basically re-built, keeping its old-world style whilst being brought into the 21st century.
During these visits we stayed at il-Sannio where Vincenzo hosted up to 1000 diners at a time in his three large dining rooms. Above the dining rooms he had 12 guest rooms which he used for wedding guests who had travelled from a distance for the celebrations and needed to stay overnight before returning home.
The peace and friendship of Vincenzo helped convince us that the Lord was very much in our decision to find a home in this heavenly place.