Leading up to Easter, long lines of religious pilgrims form on a hill where wine grapes are cultivated, just outside of Rome, where the Romanian Orthodox Church has its national headquarters. Men, women and children pray, go to confession, kiss the small church's icons, and participate in the celebrations here. Father Siluan, the church's bishop, told ANSA that Romanian parishes were the main meeting point for Romanian migrants in Italy: "At church they seek their traditions, their spirituality, their roots, and oftentimes also some assistance for finding work or a place to eat, if they haven't yet managed to settle in yet." Although official numbers put Romanian migrants in Italy at 1.1 million, the bishop said that many more Romanians come to Italy for seasonal work, as well as others from Moldavia and the borders with Ukraine. "In all, I think that there are more than 1.4 million of us," he said. When the Italian diocese was set up in 2008, it coordinated about 90 parishes. Now there are 235 parishes, as well as 100 smaller "branch" parishes in villages throughout Italy. Siluan said that the Romanian community in Italy is continuing to grow."Over the past six years, we've had an average of 10,000 baptisms," he said.

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