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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!
• Mostly 5-Star Hotels, sometimes 4-Star Hotels.
• 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 $1,200 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 $1,200.
• 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.
• NOTE: If you wish to deepen your knowledge of the Catholic Faith as a preparation for this pilgrimage, we recommend the following book as it is faithful to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church (Imprimatur by ARCHBISHOP FELIPE AGUIRRE FRANCO): The Catholic Faith in Easy Terms. Introduction, Nihil Obstat, and Imprimatur by Archbishop Felipe Aguirre Franco.
• At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 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 in the form of cash, personal check, cashiers check, or money order. 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.
• 1 month after registration, a $1,000 additional deposit is due only in the form of cash, personal check, cashiers check, or money order.

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: Depart from USA.

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. Red and white wine included. Casual Dress throughout the day. Overnight in Rome.

Day 4: Start around 9:00am. 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. In the afternoon, go to the breathtaking Catacombs where 500,000 people were buried. After the Catacombs our private bus will take us to dinner and free time around the area of the hotel. Overnight in Rome.

Day 5: 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. 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 6: En route to Florence stop in Assisi. See the tombs of St. Francis and St. Clare; enjoy a peaceful walk on the streets of Assisi. Dinner in Tuscany. Overnight in Florence.

Day 7: Tour of Florence in the region of Tuscany. Tour of the Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, the Uffizzi, Michelangelo's masterpiece, The David, Flea Market, Duomo (Cathedral), and the Baptistery. Tour Guide will show to those interested the location of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapel (where the Medici family was buried), and Basilica della Santa Croce (where Michelangelo and 15 other glorious Italian artists and thinkers were buried). Dinner in Florence. Red and white wine included. Casual dress throughout the day. Overnight in Florence.

Day 8: Tour of Venice: an amazing city built on water. Leave for Venice in the morning on our private bus. Estimated time of arrival is 12:00 noon. Visit St. Mark's plaza. Optional: Gondola ride and shopping. Long pants if you intend to go inside St. Mark's. Casual dress if you intend to go on a Gondola ride or spend time shopping and visiting the beautiful streets and bridges of Venice. Dinner and overnight in Venice.

Day 9: Our private bus brings us to the airport in Venice to fly to Tel Aviv.

Day 10: 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 and overnight in Tiberias, Galilee.

Day 11: 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 12: 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 13: 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 14: Fly back home.

Please note: We do our best to ensure that all sites listed 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. If this happens it will also necessitate a change in the restaurant for dinner. However, we will never sacrifice the quality of the meal, all restaurants will meet Proximo Travel's very high standards. 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. In addition, because of Jewish holidays and/or when the group is small, we may be able to add a few sites that are not on the itinerary. In order to do that, in some cases we might add one night in a certain hotel and take away a night from the other one.

General Trip Information