Rome • Vatican ~ St. Peter's Basilica • Assisi • Tuscany • Florence • Venice
9 days- Our prices include airfare from your hometown and exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels everywhere
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There are no trip dates scheduled at this time.
Trip Includes
- A Catholic priest will be with the group to celebrate daily Mass.
- Round-trip airfare from your hometown connecting in a major city to fly overseas is included. If your city has a direct flight to your destination, we will guarantee a direct flight as long as it is available.
- Airport Taxes, Security Fees, and Fuel Surcharges!
- Exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels in downtown areas.
- All breakfasts and all dinners. Wine is included with all dinners.
- Transportation with luxury bus.
- All entrance fees to all the sites.
- All tips to everyone involved in the tour.
- The tour fees for our guides. Our tour guides are well educated, caring, and professional. Most of them have their PhD's in Church history, archeology, philosophy, languages, or Theology.
- Luggage handling. Please pack light, one piece of luggage and one carry-on.
- Dress casually throughout the whole trip. Shoulders and knees should be covered when visiting Basilicas or churches.
- We limit our group to a maximum of 24 passengers, unless the priest on the trip requests a larger group. Small groups with a 5 star service in 4/5 star hotels.
- If you are traveling alone and you allow us to find you a roommate, you don't pay the $900 single supplement. If you wish to have your own room and you are not open to rooming with another passenger, then the single supplement fee is $900.
- Taxi and wheelchair can be provided for those passengers who cannot walk, with prior notice at registration for $150. A traveling companion has to push the wheelchair throughout the trip.
- At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 (hotel and airfare deposit) is due in the form of a credit card. For example, if your trip costs $3,700, when you sign up, you pay a $500 deposit, then your balance would be $3,200 and is due 4 months before departure date. If you sign up after the final payment due date or at the last minute, you pay the entire cost of the trip at registration.
Trip Does Not Include
- Lunch
- Insurance ~ The total trip cost is non-refundable, we recommend trip insurance to protect your investment.
Trip Itinerary
Day 1: You will depart from your hometown airport in the United States.
Day 2: Upon arrival, you will be met at the airport by one of our local tour guides. Our first stop will be to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wall where the body of St. Paul is buried. It is the second largest Basilica in Rome and one of the five largest in the world. After we leave the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the wall, we will stop and check into the hotel. In the afternoon we will be visiting St. Mary Major, the main Basilica dedicated to Mary in Rome; home to the remains of Jesus' manger, brought by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine, to Rome; the tomb of Bernini (the Architect of St Peter's in the Vatican); the tomb of St. Jerome who translated the Bible from Greek to Latin as he lived next to the manger of Jesus in Bethlehem; and the oldest icon in the world of the Virgin Mary painted by St. Luke: the famous Salus Populi Romani. We will have dinner with red and white wine included and stay overnight in Rome.
Day 3: Today we will spend the day in Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. First, we will visit the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel (the Pope's private Chapel). After the museums we will enter the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. Since we arrange all of our tours in advance you will not have to stand in long lines to gain entrance. St. Peter's is the largest Basilica in the world and the building itself is great piece of art by Bernini. Vatican rules dictate that your shoulders and knees must be covered out of respect while in St. Peter’s Basilica, make sure your wardrobe today includes long pants, capris, or skirts below the knee, and no sleeveless shirts or tank tops. Again, we will have dinner with red and white wine included and stay overnight in Rome.
Day 4: Today, enjoy the most well know symbol of the city of Rome: The Colosseum. Built in 80 A.D., it still stands as one of the greatest monuments in human history. This will be followed by a visit to the nearby Basilica of St. John Lateran; the first Basilica ever to be built in the Roman Empire after it became Christian under Constantine. In the afternoon, we will have a tour of the Catacombs where 500,000 people were buried. After the Catacombs enjoy a scenic ride back to Rome, After the Catacombs our private bus will take us to dinner and free time around the area of the hotel. Overnight in Rome.On some trips we may be able to include a visit to the charming Castel Gandolfo where the Pope's Summer Residence is located. This is an awesome, quaint little village on the shore of spectacular Lake Albano. We will have a wine tasting followed by dinner at a local restaurant. There will be several courses of delicious Italian food, and, of course, red and white wine will be included. Dinner and overnight in Rome.
Day 5: We will be outside most of the day today so dress casually with comfortable walking shoes. This morning is the Audience with the Pope at 10:00 am.** IF there is no audience, one possible option is to visit the Tre Fontane Shrine, where St. Paul was killed. We will need to depart from the hotel early. Following the General Audience there will be time for lunch in the area of the Vatican. We will spend the afternoon visiting the historical center of Rome. Our first stop will be the Spanish Steps. From there it is a short walk to Trevi Fountain; throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain. This will be followed by a walk to the Pantheon, the oldest functional building in the world. Finally, we will end at the Piazza Navona. This evening’s dinner will be at a local restaurant in the area of Piazza Navona, and, as always, will include red and white wine. This will be our last night at our hotel in Rome.
Day 6: This morning we will say good-bye to Rome as we head north toward the Tuscany region. We will break up the drive by stopping to visit the beautiful town of Assisi. There will be time to see the tombs of Sts. Francis and Clare, take a self-guided tour of the Basilica of St. Francis, and enjoy the peace and serenity as you wander the streets of Assisi. Make sure you have some lunch at one of the café’s while in Assisi, then we will continue on our way to Florence. Dinner tonight will include red and white wine served at a restaurant in Tuscany on the way to our hotel in Florence.
Day 7: Today, dress casually and get ready to see everything Florence has to offer: museums, shopping, a Cathedral, and more. Our tour will include Ponte Vecchio; Piazza della Signoria; the Uffizzi; Michelangelo's masterpiece, The David; the Flea Market; the Duomo (Cathedral); and the Baptistery. The tour guide will be available to assist you, if you are interested in seeing even more sites. Our dinner will include red and white wine and will be at a local restaurant in Florence. This will be our last night at the hotel in Florence.
Day 8: We will need to get an early start this morning because we will go to Venice, also known as the Dominante city, the city of Masks, an amazing city built on water. We will begin with a visit to St. Mark's plaza. From there you can choose to visit St. Mark’s Cathedral, go on a Gondola ride, or spend time shopping and visiting the beautiful streets and bridges of Venice. While the Gondola ride is optional, the tour guide will organize everything for you. Casual dress is appropriate for today but long pants are required if you intend to go inside St. Mark's. We will have our farewell dinner in Venice around the area of the hotel, of course, red and white wine will be included. We will spend the night in Venice.
Day 9:Our private bus brings us to the airport in Venice to fly back to USA.
Please note: We do our best to ensure that all sites in this itinerary will be seen. However, due to scheduling conflicts, or other circumstances beyond our control, sites may be visited on a different day than listed. Since we have several different trip configurations touring at the same time, it is likely that groups on different tours will be combined when their itineraries overlap in certain areas.