A Young Adults Pilgrimage to Italy

Pilgrims gather at Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and check in for Air Canada flight 417, departing Montreal at 3:10 PM and arriving Toronto Pearson (YYZ) at 4:40 PM. After a brief connection in Toronto, the group boards Air Canada flight 890 at 6:55 PM for the overnight transatlantic crossing to Rome.

Air Canada flight 890 arrives at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) at 10:00 AM. Your ProRome Tour Manager will meet the group at arrivals and transfer you by private motorcoach toward the southern edge of the ancient city. Our pilgrimage begins where the Church of Rome herself begins, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, raised over the tomb of the Apostle to the Gentiles, with its golden mosaic apse and roundel portraits of every pope since St. Peter. Mass at the Basilica. Light lunch on your own. In the afternoon we descend into the Catacombs of St. Sebastian along the Via Appia Antica, walking the same passages where the early Christians buried their martyrs and gathered to celebrate Mass. Transfer to your religious guesthouse near the Vatican. Welcome dinner together as a group.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we make our way to St. Peter’s Square for the Papal Audience with Pope Leo XIV, joining pilgrims from every nation in the heart of the Universal Church. Lunch on your own near the Vatican. The afternoon unfolds as a walking pilgrimage through the Centro Storico. We celebrate Mass at Sant’Agostino, where St. Monica is buried and where Caravaggio’s Madonna of the Pilgrims hangs. From there we wind through Piazza Navona and visit two more of the great churches of the centro: San Luigi dei Francesi, home of Caravaggio’s Matthew cycle, and Sant’Agnese in Agone, built on the site of the young martyr’s witness. We pause at the Pantheon, the best-preserved monument of ancient Rome and now a Catholic basilica, and end at the Trevi Fountain. Group dinner in the centro storico.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we depart Rome by private motorcoach for Nettuno, an hour south along the Tyrrhenian coast. Our destination is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces and Saint Maria Goretti, the resting place of the young martyr of purity who, at just eleven years old, forgave her attacker as she lay dying in 1902. The group will venerate her incorrupt relics, with time set aside for private prayer and the sacrament of confession. Mass at the Sanctuary. Lunch on your own in Nettuno’s seaside center. In the afternoon we visit the nearby Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, the final resting place of 7,858 American war dead, most of whom fell in the liberation of Sicily and the Anzio-Nettuno beachhead landings of 1944. Time to pray for the repose of their souls and to reflect on courage and sacrifice. Return to Rome. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning carries particular meaning for the Diocese of Burlington as we walk to San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains). Here, displayed beneath the high altar, are the chains that bound the Prince of the Apostles in both Jerusalem and Rome, miraculously fused into a single set when brought together in the 5th century. We venerate the chains and view Michelangelo’s Moses, the centerpiece of Pope Julius II’s tomb. Mass at San Pietro in Vincoli. We then walk down to the Colosseum for a guided tour of the great amphitheater and the surrounding Imperial Fora. Lunch on your own near the Forum. In the afternoon we transfer across Rome to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (the relic of the Holy Crib, the recent tomb of Pope Francis) and the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the Cathedral of Rome. We finish at the Scala Sancta, the marble stairs of Pilate’s praetorium, brought from Jerusalem by St. Helena and traditionally climbed on the knees in penance. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. A note on the Scavi: the Scavi Tour beneath St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the most sought-after experiences in Rome, with limited daily access and tickets released only a few months in advance. ProRome will request tickets for the group as soon as the booking window opens, but availability cannot be confirmed until that time. The Scavi Tour is therefore tentative and pending ticket availability at the time of booking.

If we secure tickets, the group will descend into one of the most extraordinary places in all of Christendom, led by a seminarian of the Pontifical North American College. We make our way through the 1st-century Roman necropolis hidden beneath the basilica floor, past pagan family tombs, Christian burial chambers, and finally to the famous graffiti wall marked Petros eni (“Peter is here”), and then to the very bones of St. Peter himself, identified directly beneath the high altar. From the Scavi we ascend into the basilica for a guided tour: Michelangelo’s Pietà, Bernini’s Baldacchino, the Confession, and the Chair of St. Peter.

If Scavi tickets are not available, the morning will instead be given to an extended guided tour of St. Peter’s Basilica itself, with time at all the sites listed above. Lunch on your own in the Borgo. The afternoon is yours for personal prayer or confession. In the late afternoon we transfer up the Janiculum Hill to the Pontifical North American College, a true homecoming for Fr. Gratton, who formed for the priesthood here. Evening prayer and Mass in the NAC chapel, followed by Q&A with a seminarian or formator if schedules permit. Group dinner on the Janiculum.

Breakfast and check-out from the Rome guesthouse. We board the private motorcoach and head north into Umbria. Our first stop is the medieval hilltop town of Orvieto, perched above the volcanic plain. We celebrate Mass at the Duomo of Orvieto and venerate the corporal of the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena (1263), the bloodstained altar cloth that occasioned Pope Urban IV’s institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi. A brief guided tour of the Duomo follows: the golden mosaic façade and Luca Signorelli’s Last Judgment frescoes in the San Brizio Chapel, which directly inspired Michelangelo’s own Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. Lunch on your own in Orvieto. We continue north to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at the foot of the hill, home to the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel St. Francis rebuilt with his own hands and where he founded the Franciscan Order. We also visit the Cappella del Transito, the small cell where St. Francis died on October 3, 1226. Continue up the hill to Assisi proper and check in at your religious guesthouse in the centro storico. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we celebrate Mass and tour the Basilica of San Francesco, the great mother church of the Franciscan world. We descend to the crypt to venerate the tomb of St. Francis, then visit the Lower Church, with its stunning Cimabue and Giotto frescoes, and the Upper Church, home to Giotto’s monumental 28-panel fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis. We then walk through the medieval streets of Assisi to the Basilica of Santa Chiara, where we venerate the tomb of St. Clare and reverence the San Damiano Crucifix, the very cross that spoke to Francis: “Rebuild my Church, which as you can see is falling into ruin.” Lunch on your own in Assisi. The afternoon takes us to the Cattedrale di San Rufino, where both Francis and Clare were baptized at the same medieval font, and to Santa Maria Maggiore, the resting place of Blessed Carlo Acutis, the millennial saint whose life of Eucharistic devotion has captured the imagination of young Catholics across the world. Free time before dinner for personal prayer and reflection. Group dinner in Assisi.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. Mass at the Basilica of Santa Chiara. Today is given over to the spirit of Assisi itself, with guided options to explore the surrounding hills as Francis and his early companions did. Pilgrims may choose to hike down to the San Damiano hermitage, the small church Francis rebuilt with his own hands and where he composed the Canticle of the Creatures, the first great poem of Italian literature. Alternatively, the more ambitious may hike up the slopes of Mount Subasio to the Eremo delle Carceri, the forest hermitage of caves and oak trees where Francis withdrew for solitude and prayer. Free time in Assisi to wander the medieval streets, browse Franciscan bookshops, and enjoy a final lunch on your own in town. Group farewell dinner in Assisi.

Early breakfast and check-out from the Assisi guesthouse. Final Mass in Assisi, with the location determined by flight timing. Private motorcoach transfer to Rome Fiumicino Airport, approximately 2.5 hours south. The group checks in for Air Canada flight 893, departing FCO at 11:15 AM and arriving Montreal (YUL) at 3:40 PM the same day.