Rimini, August 17, 2026 – It is the ‘holy summer’ of the Riviera. In the midst of the season, Rimini will stop to welcome the Pontiff. Everything is ready for the visit of Pope Leo XIV, who on Saturday will stop in San Marino, at the Meeting and will conclude the day with the mass at the port of Rimini. A day that will go down in history. Prevost will be the 12th Pontiff to stop in Rimini, the second in the post-war period after the historic visit of Wojtyla in 1982. His presence on Titano will celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and San Marino. And it will be the second time a Pope attends the Meeting, after John Paul II.
The program
Leo XIV’s will be a real marathon. His pastoral visit to San Marino and Rimini will last a full 11 hours, retracing the steps of Wojtyla in 1982. On Saturday the Holy Father will arrive at 9 by helicopter on Titano. From here he will reach Piazza della Libertà and Palazzo Pubblico: he will meet the Sammarinese authorities and speak to the Grand and General Council (the Sammarinese Parliament), then he will appear on the balcony to greet the crowd and conclude the visit by praying in the Basilica of Saint Marino. Leaving San Marino, the Pontiff will go to Pennabilli and have lunch with the Augustinian nuns of the Convent of Sant’Antonio. He knows it well: when he was the general prior of the Augustinian order he was here twice in 2005 and 2009. At 2:45 pm the Pope will arrive at the Rimini Fair to visit the exhibitions and the village of the Meeting’s youth and (at 4 pm) will speak to the CL people. From the Fair he will move to the Rimini Cathedral, where (at 5:30 pm) he will meet the sick, disabled and poor assisted by Caritas. The grand finale will be at the port, around 6:30 pm: here Leo will celebrate the final mass of the day, in front of tens of thousands of people. And he will leave the port (by helicopter) around 8 pm, after greeting the crowd.
Over a thousand volunteers
Preparations have been underway for 5 months. The Rimini diocese has ‘enlisted’ over 500 volunteers. On Saturday they will take care of everything: from assisting the faithful at the mass and meeting in the Cathedral, to patrolling the streets. An equal number of Meeting volunteers are engaged for Leo’s visit: they will join the other 3,000 (500 have already been working for weeks on the setups) for the CL event, which will start on Friday. A large deployment of men and resources also from the Sammarinese authorities, the Municipality of Rimini, and law enforcement. All the streets crossed by Leo will be closed to traffic and secured, but there will be some areas where the faithful can greet the Holy Father while he travels in the popemobile.
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Gadgets and giant screens
Waiting for Pope Leo’s visit, the gadgets prepared for the occasion are selling fast: thousands of t-shirts and caps, but also parasol umbrellas, holy cards and rosaries with the image of the Pontiff. He will also be welcomed with some banners, from San Marino to Rimini. All the seats to participate in the meeting with the Holy Father in San Marino, at the Meeting, and at the Cathedral have been sold out for days. Only a few seats remain for the mass at the port: the capacity is 25,000 people, and there will be thousands more stationed outside the area. Meanwhile, over 20,000 will be at the Fair auditorium for the Meeting event. Those who did not get a pass should not despair: there will be giant screens both in San Marino, at the Fair, and on the Rimini waterfront, so as not to miss a single moment of the Pope’s visit.
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