Make your way to your local airport, where you will board your overnight flight(s). Your meals will be served on board.

You will arrive at the Rome airport and meet your driver in the Arrivals’ Hall, from which you will be transferred to your hotel for check-in. After Mass, enjoy a social with drinks where you can meet your fellow pilgrims. Then, enjoy a welcome dinner before overnight in your hotel.

After breakfast, we will depart Rome to visit the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, which serves as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the Pope. We will tour the grounds and the museum. After lunch, you will enjoy a wine tasting and a tour of the town of Castel Gandolfo, before returning to Rome for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, you will visit the Vatican Museum, where you can see the Tapestry Gallery, Raphael Rooms, and Sistine Chapel. After lunch, continue down the Appian Way, one of the earliest roads built in ancient Rome to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls and the Catacombs. Dinner and overnight in Rome.

After breakfast, we will travel to the Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano, one of the most archeologically significant churches in all of Rome. We will have a tour of the Church and grounds before celebrating Holy Mass. After lunch, we will enjoy a walking tour of the city with the opportunity to see many different historical sites—the Coliseum, Forum, Mamertine Prison, St. Peter in Chains, Capitoline Hill, and the Piazza Venezia. After the tour, we’ll return to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

This morning we attend the Papal Audience in St. Peter’s Square or at the Audience Hall. The Audience is celebrated each Wednesday by His Holiness, Pope Francis (pending the papal schedule). Afterwards, we’ll attend lunch at the Centro Internazionale Animazione Missionaria, which has a beautiful vista overlooking the city. In the afternoon you will have a Vatican Mosaic Studio private tour (Pending Confirmation of Availability) followed by a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. We’ll return to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

This morning, you will ride through the beautiful Umbrian mountains to Orvieto. This incredible town sits on a volcanic high rock formation. Here we visit one of the most beautiful and most renowned Cathedrals in Italy. Because of its strategic location, it’s Christian history officially started in 1004, but Orvieto was built over preexisting Etruscan era cave tunnels dating back 2,500 years, which some historians believe Christians used to celebrate Mass when Christianity was forbidden. After lunch you will explore this beautiful historic town before returning to Rome for dinner and overnight.

This morning we will head to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. You will start your tour at the St. Francis Basilica, visit the tomb of St. Francis, and have the opportunity to view a series of frescoes depicting his life, along with a few of the saint’s possessions. Followed by a visit to the Santuario Della Spogliazione where Saint Carlo Acutis’ tomb is placed. From there, you will continue on a walking tour through this picturesque town, including the birthplace of St. Francis, and end with a tour of the Church that honors St. Clare, the foundress of the Poor Clare Sisters. After lunch, you will board the bus, which will take you outside of the walls of Assisi, to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. This is where St. Francis spent most of his life. This Basilica is made up of two structures, both of which you will visit. The first structure is the “Porziuncola”, which is where St. Francis founded his order of the Friars Minor (Franciscans). The second, is the “Capella del Transito”, which is the place of St. Francis’ death. During your time here, you will have the opportunity to visit the beautiful Rose Garden where St. Francis and other friars lived, as well as the cave where the Saint retired to pray. Return to the hotel for dinner and an overnight.

After breakfast we will depart for the Rome Airport for your trip back to the USA.

*206 Tours Disclaimer:
Occasionally local religious and national holidays, weather, traffic conditions and other events may necessitate changes in the sequence of events or the missing of certain events/places. Though every effort will be made to follow the itinerary, it should be considered as an indication, rather than a contract of events and places to be visited.