Assisi • Greccio • Rome
10 Days – Our prices include airfare from your hometown and 4 or 5 star hotels everywhere
Scroll down to view the itinerary; click on the trip date to book your trip online.
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
- 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.
- 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 and payment of $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/Nov 2 - Your Italian adventure begins as you depart the USA on your international flight.
Day 2/Nov 3 - On arrival at Rome airport, you will be met and transferred north by coach through the stunning countryside. Celebrate Mass in Assisi. Check into your Assisi Hotel. Free time in Assisi. Dinner as a group tonight. Overnight in Assisi
Day 3/Nov 4 – This morning wake up to the atmospheric sounds of chapel bells, cobblestone footsteps and a tangible spirit of St Francis preserved within the walls of this holy town. Today we will visit the Rivo Torto church, enclosing a stable once providing shelter to St. Francis and his followers. We will be spending time at San Damiano where the crucifix spoke to Francis and where St. Clare lived until her death in 1253. Visiting the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels we will see and experience the Porziuncola - the small church given to Francis by the Benedictine monks. You will have time for private devotion and leisure. Dinner as you like it this night. Overnight in Assisi
Day 4/Nov 5 – An early morning visit to the Carceri for those who want to visit the place outside of Assisi where Francis and the brothers went to withdraw for reflection and prayer. In the afternoon we will visit the La Verna Sanctuary, the place where tradition holds that Francis received the stigmata. It is perched in an amazing setting in the forest on a high rocky promontory, visible from a distance. You will have time for private devotion and participation in the daily procession to the site of the reception of the stigmata at 3 pm. Dinner as you like it tonight. Overnight in Assisi
Day 5/Nov 6 – Today will be spent dwelling in places in Assisi with time for prayer and reflection. These places will include the Basilica of St. Francis, filled with remarkable frescoes, and the Basilica of St. Clare, where in the Chapel of St. George hangs the original crucifix that spoke to Francis. Other stops will be the Cathedral of San Rufino where the baptismal font in which both Francis and Clare were baptized and the home of Francis’ parents. Dinner as a group tonight. Overnight in Assisi
Day 6/Nov 7 - After breakfast, we’ll begin our journey to Rome. En route, we will stop in Greccio to visit the Sanctuary. Set within the rock like an eagle’s nest, the Greccio hermitage is an extraordinary fusion of architecture and nature. Celebrate Mass here. The Sanctuary is famous because Saint Francis of Assisi chose it as the backdrop to one of the highest and most lyrical moments in his life: the first recreation of the Bethlehem Nativity in Christianity on Christmas Eve, 1223. In the afternoon visit the iconic Colosseum in Rome and the Pantheon, built by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD). Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it around 126 AD. Dinner together this evening in Rome. Overnight in Rome
Day 7/Nov 8 – We will start the day in Rome with an early morning visit to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. Enjoy a guided tour of the Vatican’s Museums and Sistine Chapel. Built by connecting portions of the old Papal residence with newer structures, the museum houses a world-renowned collection of art and antiquities. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512 and later painted The Last Judgment between 1535 and 1541 for Popes Clement VII and Paul III. The primary function of the chapel is the Papal Conclave, providing the place where the College of Cardinals of the church gathers to select a new Pope. Then walk through St. Peter’s Basilica. The present structure completed in 1590 was built over the Byzantine and Middle Ages structures that marked the tomb of Saint Peter. There are more than 100 tombs within the basilica, including most recently Saint John Paul II.***Those in the group who are interested and if possible will be arranging their own Scavi tours for this afternoon. Dinner as you like it tonight. Overnight in Rome
Day 8/Nov 9 – Today, pray at the tomb of St. Paul in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The present structure stands over the place where Constantine built the first church over Saint Paul’s grave. The church features a portrait of every Pope that has served the church, with the face of Pope Francis I illuminated as the present pontiff. We will step beneath the surface into the Catacombs of Callixtus, built along the Appian Way. Here 16 Popes from the 2nd through 4th Centuries were interred, though they have been removed to various churches over the centuries. We will visit the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the oldest and highest ranking of the four papal major basilicas. The Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem is where St. Helena brought Passion relics, and the floor was covered with soil from Jerusalem. Relics here include the index finger of Thomas that touched the wounds of Christ after His resurrection and a piece of the Good Thief’s Cross. Dinner as you like it tonight. Overnight in Rome
Day 9 /Nov 10 – After breakfast, celebrate Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit, which as the Centre for Divine Mercy, has relics of St. Pope John Paul II and Sr. Faustina on display. Then, you and many of the faithful from throughout the world will enjoy the opportunity to join in praying the Angelus with Pope Francis and receive his greeting, blessing, and prayers in St. Peter’s Square. After lunch, visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore which was founded in the 4th century when Christianity was first legalized. Dinner on our final night together. Overnight in Rome
Day 10/Nov 11 – Return to USA