Rome • Tuscany • San Giovanni Rotondo • Assisi • Tel Aviv • Galilee • Jerusalem • Capernaum
14 Days - Our prices include airfare from your home town 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 to a gateway 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 dinner in Italy only.
- 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.
- 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 not open to rooming with another passenger, the single supplement fee is $900.
- Dress casually all throughout the trip. Shoulders and knees should be covered when visiting Basilicas or churches.
- 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 with a credit card. For example, if your trip costs $3,700, when you sign up and you pay the $500 deposit, 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, the entire cost of the trip is due at registration.
Trip Does Not Include
- Lunch
- Insurance ~ The total trip cost is non-refundable, so we recommend trip insurance to protect your investment.
Trip Itinerary
Day 1: Depart from USA. Arrival next day.
Day 2: Arrival. Depending upon your arrival time, we may visit the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Wall where the body of St. Paul is buried. It is the 2nd largest basilica in Rome and the 5th in the world. Check in the hotel and rest for a few hours if time permits. In the afternoon, we will be visiting St. Mary Major, the main Basilica dedicated to Mary in Rome. We will see the remains of Jesus' manger, the tomb of Bernini, the remains of St. Matthew the Evangelist, the tomb of St. Jerome, and the oldest icon in the world of the Virgin Mary painted by St. Luke: the famous Salus Populi Romani. We may immerse ourselves in the local culture by attending an Italian mass at St. Mary Major as well. Casual dress. Dinner and overnight in Rome.
Day 3: We will have an early start as our private bus leaves around 7:00 am to the Vatican to experience the 10:00 am Audience with the Pope. We will see the Pope very closely; sometimes we even shake his hand. There will be time for lunch in the area of the Vatican, before we visit the Spanish Steps. This is the place where the Romans hung out. From there we will walk to Trevi Fountain, and have time for shopping. Followed by a walk to the Pantheon, the oldest functional building in the world, and then to the great artistic place of Piazza Navona around 4:30 pm. Dinner at Piazza Navona. Casual Dress throughout the day. Overnight in Rome.
Day 4: Start the day around 9:30 am, by visiting the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, the Pope's Private chapel. Tour of St. Peter's in the Vatican, the largest Basilica in the world. Visit the Colosseum, the symbol of the city of Rome; a great building that has been standing since 80 A.D. Then visit St. John Lateran, the first Basilica ever to be built in the Roman Empire. Long pants, capris, or skirts below the knee, shoulders covered. Time to rest before dinner in the area of the hotel. Dinner and overnight in Rome.
Day 5: Travel to Assisi. See the tombs of St. Francis and St. Clare; enjoy a peaceful walk on the streets of Assisi. Dinner and overnight in Assisi.
Day 6: After breakfast, depart from Assisi. Our first stop is in Loreto where we will tour the sanctuary and Holy House. After lunch we will go on to Lanciano where we will visit St Francis’ church and the sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle. Visit St Michel’s Cave in Monte Gargan. After dinner continue on to San Giovanni Rotondo. Dinner and overnight in San Giovanni Rotondo.
Day 7: Visit Giovanni Rotondo. Dinner and overnight in area of Monte Cassino.
Day 8: Tour of Monte Cassino Monastery. Dinner and overnight in Rome.
Day 9: Fly to Tel Aviv. Arrive in Tel Aviv at Ben Gurion Airport. Meet your fellow pilgrims and tour guides, and transfer to the hotel by deluxe motor coach. We will have a brief orientation meeting, and acclimate to our new surroundings. Dinner with wine, and overnight in Tiberias, Galilee.
Day 10: We begin this day with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee to visit the ruins of Capernaum. Next we visit the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes and the Chapel of the Primacy at Tabgha. Proceed to visit the Mount of Beatitudes, which commemorates the Sermon on the Mount (Mathew 5:1-12). After lunch visit Cana in Galilee where Jesus turned water into wine during a wedding feast, and we end our tour for the day at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Dinner and overnight in Tiberias, Galilee.
Day 11: After breakfast we drive down through the Jordan Valley to the place of baptism for a visit and for renewal of baptismal vows if desired. Our next stop will be to the oldest city in the world, Jericho, and a view of the Mount of Temptation on which our Lord was tempted 40 days and 40 nights. We shall also view Zacchaeus' tree, then proceed to Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We continue our drive on up through the Judean Wilderness to Jerusalem, and take a first glimpse of the city from the heights of Mt. Scopus before checking into our hotel. Dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.
Day 12: After breakfast we shall start our pilgrimage in Jerusalem with a drive to Mount of Olives, from which Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection. So, our first visit is the church of the Ascension next the church of Pater Noster commemorating Jesus teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer. Walk down the 'Palm Sunday road,' and visit the chapel of Dominus Flevit, here Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. Then proceed to the garden of Gethsemane, and see the church of Mary Magdalene, and visit the Church of all Nations. Drive to Mount Zion and visit the upper room where Jesus had his last supper. Next visit the Dormition Abbey where the Virgin Mary assumed into heaven body and soul. Before lunch we visit the church of St. Peter in Galicantu, which built over the site of the house of the high priest Caiaphas and the dungeon where our Lord was imprisoned before his trial. It is also here that Peter denied knowing Jesus thrice. After lunch we will visit Bethlehem starting the Basilica of the Nativity and the Grotto, venerated as the birthplace of Jesus (Luke 2:1-7). We will also visit the church of St Catherine, the Crusaders' Cloister, the Chapel of St Jerome and the Grotto of the Holy Innocents. Finally, we will visit the shepherd's fields before returning to our hotel, for dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.
Day 13: After breakfast we will drive to St. Steven's Gate where we shall enter the old city and start our morning tour at the Crusader's church of St. Anne and the pool of the Bethesda. Continue to the tower of Antonia where Jesus was tried and the church of the flagellation from where we follow the Stations of the Cross ending inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. After lunch we shall visit the last standing remnant of the ancient Temple at the Western (Wailing) Wall. Next and drive to Ein Karem, home of St. Elizabeth, and mother of John the Baptist to visit of the visitation and the church of St. John the Baptist.
Day 13: Fly Home.