Depart   on an overnight flight to Rome ,dinner and breakfast  served on board

Arrive  Rome’s International airport we are met by our English speaking tour director. Transfer to hotel with a stop at St. Paul Outside the Walls and    Celebrate Mass

Check in at hotel and free afternoon.

Dinner at hotel and overnight.

Depart hotel after breakfast. Drive along the ancient Appian Way to see the “Domino quo vadis” chapel and visit the catacombs.  Celebrate Mass-,

Continue sightseeing tour of Christian Rome with local guide:  visit Basilica of St. Mary Major one of the oldest shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary – Holy Stairs and Basilica of St. John Lateran, the former residence of the popes prior to their return to Rome in 1377 –

Break for lunch

Then transfer to the Vatican Museums: visit the major halls to see all the relics and works donated throughout centuries to the Church. Be amazed in the Sistine Chapel admiring Michelangelo’s masterpiece.  Walk a short distance to St. Peter’s Basilica, built on the site where St. Peter was martyred.  This is the grandest of the world’s churches, rich marble monuments among which the Michelangelo’s Pietà.

Balance of the afternoon at leisure in San Peter’s square

Return to hotel for dinner and overnight

Celebrate Mass Catacombs

Box breakfast and very early morning transfer to San Peter’s square to attend the Papal Audience.  Tickets are for general attendance.

Afternoon at leisure

Return transfer to hotel, for dinner and overnight

Celebrate Mass

Depart hotel after breakfast

Enjoy a walking guided tour in the real core of Imperial Rome. Visit ( inside) the Coliseum and the valley of the Roman Forum, where  the great Rome with its important buildings will revive before your eyes; the Curia, seat of the Roman Senate, the State Archive, the basilicas, palaces of justice, the temple of Vesta, and the House of the Vestals, the virgins in charge of keeping the sacred fire always alive, and all around temples and columns and arches of triumph erected to commemorate gods of Roman history

Break for lunch

Afternoon walking tour of the “Baroque” Rome, to see Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, The Pantheon and Navona square with the Bernini’s fountains of the Four Rivers

Return to hotel .for dinner and overnight

Mass celebrated in a selected location

Following breakfast, we will head south and cross through the Roman countryside with its villas and vineyards. During your drive, your tour escort will explain the spiritual, historical, and cultural overview of Italy, which will help to orient you to this beautiful country and prepare you for all that you will experience in the days to follow. We stop at Montecassino, a beautiful town founded by Saint Benedict in 529. Enjoy free time for lunch and then continue through the countryside heading east to St. Padre Pio’s town, San Giovanni Rotondo, our base for the following two nights. Dinner and overnight.

 Celebrate Mass Montecassino

After celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Padre Pio, we tour the sanctuary, see the old church and the crucifix from which he received the stigmata in 1918. You will see the confessional where St. Padre Pio spent innumerable hours with a multitude of pilgrims, directing them on their journey toward God. (We will have the opportunity to view and pray before the incorrupt body of St.Padre Pio.) Enjoy a breathtaking view of the Gargano Peninsula and a visit to the Grotto of Michael the Archangel. Six different popes, St Francis and at least four other saints have knelt in prayer at this grotto, seeking the protection of St Michael. Following free time for lunch, take in the panoramic view of the ocean and the surrounding countryside awaits you at this most celebrated shrine of early Christianity, a shrine consecrated by St Michael himself in 490. Return to San Giovanni for devotions, reflection, and a restful overnight.
Celebrate Mass San Giovanni Rotondo

After breakfast  we depart to Pietrecina. The birthplace of St. Padre Pio. We will visit his home,   The church of Santa Ana where he was baptized.  We will celebrate Holy Mass at Santa  Maria degli Angeli.  We then visit  Piana  Romana, where St.  Padra  Pio received the invisible stigmata. In the afternoon we return  back to San Giovanni Rotondo.

After dinner we join in celebration and procession from Our Lady of  Grace.  Overnight in San Giovanni Rontondo.

Celebrate Mass  at Santa Maria degli Angle  

After breakfast at our hotel before we make our way to Lanciano, and visit the Church of St. Longinus where we will see the Eucharistic Miracle and celebrate Mass. It was here, as they celebrated the Latin Rite, a Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass. The monk had doubts about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. With doubt in his voice, he said the “Words of Consecration” and the bread turned into living flesh, and the wine changed into live blood. The blood coagulated into five globules, corresponding to the wounds Christ suffered in each hand and foot on the cross, and the wound from the centurion’s spear. After free time for lunch, we will continue on toward the Adriatic coast to the great Marian shrine of Loreto to visit the Holy House of Nazareth and the beautiful Madonna of Loreto. More than 50 popes have made a pilgrimage to the house transported by angels to this hill in central Italy in 1294. Tradition has it that this is the house in which Mary first prayed the Magnificat, in which Jesus grew to manhood, and in which the Holy Family lived. Enjoy free time for lunch before we make our way to Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment, and the founder of the Franciscan Order. We arrive in time for dinner at our hotel.
 Celebrate Mass Lanciano

After breakfast, we will begin a tour (with local guide) of Assisi. Visit the tomb of St Francis. Explore the quaint hilltop birthplace of St Francis that still retains something of the atmosphere of the early 1200s, the period when St Francis began his ministry. Contained within the huge 13th-century Basilica are many of the saint’s possessions and a series of frescoes depicting his life. You may kneel before the crucifix from which Jesus spoke to St Francis, asking him to rebuild His church. It was in St Mary of the Angels Basilica where St Francis spent most of his life. Here we visit the Chapel, Portiuncola, the rose bush, and the cave where the saint retired for prayer. Stroll the medieval streets of the compact little town. You will have some free time to shop or eat lunch at an outdoor cafe with a view of an ancient Roman temple, we go to the Church of St. Clare to view the relics of St. Clare. The founder’s of the Order of Poor Clares followed the teachings of St Francis by living a life of poverty and humility. We will visit these two saints’ tombs. Free time for lunch,. After lunch we drive to Cascia to visit the shrine of St. Rita . Drive back to Assisi for dinner and overnight 
Celebrate Mass Assisi

After breakfast  we depart  to Greccio church of St. Francis.   The town  is first mentioned as Grecce or Grezze in the 11th century, when it had a castle. The castle has now disappeared except for a single tower, which is now the belfry of the church of S. Michele. Greccio was the place where, in December 1223, St. Francis devised the first living crib (in Italian: presepe). The idea was to discourage would-be pilgrims to go to Bethlehem, as it was a risky adventure, the Holy Land being then under the control of theTurks. The tradition continues there to this day, and a memorial of St. Francis, the Santuario di S. Francesco, may be visited. St. Francis, recalling a visit he had made years before to Bethlehem, resolved to create the manger he had seen there. The ideal spot was a cave in nearby Greccio. He would find a baby, hay upon which to lay him, an ox and an ass to stand beside the manger. Word went out to the people of the town. At the appointed time they arrived carrying torches and candles. One of the friars began celebrating Mass while Francis himself gave the sermon. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, recalls that Francis stood before the manger, overwhelmed with love and filled with a wonderful happiness. For Francis, the simple celebration was meant to recall the hardships Jesus suffered even as an infant, a savior who chose to become poor for our sake, a truly human Jesus. Farwell dinner and overnight.

Celebrate Mass Greccio

After breakfast and Holy Mass. We transfer to airport for our flight back home.