Those who reach Fallo from A1 (Roma-Napoli), they take the superhighway which takes them up to S. Angelo del Pesco. At the end of the hill of that superhighway, on the right, can be seen a village perched on top of a hill: it is Rionero Sannitico. Perhaps not everyone knows, but the village has been for years, (even after the last world conflict) a goal of a pilgrimage for Fallo's inhabitants.

People used to leave in the morning at dawn and returned the next day. Those who could afford it, went by carriage, the others rode a mule or a donkey. Many were those who started the journey on foot. When there were no trains, they used to take the road toward Castel di Sangro and then they went uphill toward Rionero (about thirty kilometers in all). People stayed overnight with people they knew or spent the night in haylofts.

When the railroad was built, the pilgrimage became less weary, but not less heartfelt. An old timer of the village used to tell me "We used to go to Rionero for the devotion of Saint Mariano".

It is told that the Saint, during a period of great drought, passing through the village, not only brought rain, but he even made a spring gush from the ground. And it is precisely for the water that people went there: to avoid the drought, the scourge of the fields. They used to carry bottles to be filled, and then back to Fallo, they were given to relatives and friends for good luck. Some even brought the miraculous water to the fields.

I don't know if now Saint Mariano is still celebrated, but I certainly know that then the feast came in the month of April, and like in all patrons' feasts, the Saint's statue was carried in procession through the town. The fountain with the miraculous water is located outside the town in a section where now stand new buildings, and it is exactly there that the pilgrims used to go just before they began their trip back.