A Pilgrimage to
Rome & Assisi

Pilgrims gather at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) for the overnight transatlantic flight to Rome. The entire group flies together; airfare of $1,195 per person is included in the package price. We depart on United Flight 510 at 8:05 PM, arriving at Rome Fiumicino the following morning. Full flight details are listed in the Group Flight Information section below.

Morning arrival at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) at 10:55 AM. Your ProRome Tour Manager meets the group and transfers you by private motorcoach to your religious guesthouse in the Vatican area. Rather than letting the group sleep through the afternoon, we keep you outdoors and moving, the best defense against jet lag and a fitting entry into the pilgrimage. We begin in Ancient Rome, where the empire that once persecuted the Church was eventually transformed by it. We tour the Colosseum, where thousands of Christian martyrs gave their lives, and walk through the Roman Forum and Arch of Constantine, which commemorates the emperor whose Edict of Milan ended the persecutions. We finish at the Mamertine Prison, where Saints Peter and Paul were held before their martyrdom, one of the most moving sites in all of Rome. Mass at the Basilica of San Clemente or Santa Maria in Traspontina near the Vatican. Welcome dinner together as a group.

Early breakfast. This morning we make our way to St. Peter’s Square for the Papal Wednesday General Audience with the Holy Father, joining pilgrims from every nation in the heart of the Universal Church. ProRome will arrange advance ticket reservation; the Holy Father typically processes through the crowd, delivers his catechesis, and imparts the Apostolic Blessing. Lunch on your own near the Vatican. The afternoon is given to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel: the Raphael Rooms (The School of Athens, The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament), the Gallery of Maps, the Gallery of Tapestries, and finally Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: the ceiling (1508–1512) and The Last Judgment (1536–1541). Mass at a church near the guesthouse. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. We begin at Tre Fontane, the site of St. Paul’s martyrdom: tradition holds that when his head was severed, it struck the ground three times, and at each point a spring of water miraculously arose. Three ancient churches now mark the site, set on grounds tended by the Trappist community. We continue to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for Mass and a guided tour: the second-largest church in Rome, raised over the tomb of the Apostle to the Gentiles, with its golden mosaic apse, the papal portrait medallions encircling the nave, the chains of St. Paul, and the magnificent Cosmati cloister. In the afternoon we descend into the Catacombs of San Sebastiano on the Via Appia Antica, walking the same passages where the early Christians buried their martyrs and where the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul were once transferred for safekeeping during the persecutions. We finish at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, home to the Salus Populi Romani, the relic of the Holy Crib, the 5th-century triumphal arch mosaics, and the tombs of Pope St. Pius V and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Group dinner in Trastevere.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we depart Rome by private motorcoach for Subiaco, approximately 1.5 hours east in the Aniene Valley. Our destination is the Monastery of San Benedetto (Sacro Speco), built directly into the cliff face above the cave where the young St. Benedict lived as a hermit for three years, the very origin of Western monasticism. Mass at the Sacro Speco, followed by a tour of the chapels and oratories ascending into the rock, with their 13th-century frescoes of extraordinary beauty, the Holy Grotto itself, and the earliest known portrait of St. Francis of Assisi. We then visit the nearby Monastery of Santa Scolastica, the oldest continuously occupied Benedictine monastery in the world, founded by St. Benedict himself for his twin sister St. Scholastica. Note: Subiaco is one of the most spiritually powerful and visually spectacular days of the pilgrimage. Return to Rome with free time for personal exploration. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. The morning is given to Ancient Christian Rome. We begin at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the Cathedral of Rome and “Mother and Head of All Churches in the City and the World,” with the relics of Saints Peter and Paul enshrined in its great Gothic tabernacle, the magnificent apse mosaic, and the bronze doors brought from the ancient Roman Senate. We continue to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, built by St. Helena to house the relics she brought from the Holy Land: fragments of the True Cross, the Titulus Crucis, two thorns from the Crown of Thorns, a nail from the Crucifixion, and the finger of Doubting Thomas. For those who wish, we offer the Scala Sancta, the marble stairs from Pontius Pilate’s praetorium, traditionally climbed on the knees with one Our Father on each of the 28 steps. The afternoon is a walking tour of the Centro Storico: Piazza Navona with Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain, the Pantheon, San Luigi dei Francesi for Caravaggio’s Matthew cycle, and Sant’Agostino for Caravaggio’s Madonna of Loreto and the tomb of St. Monica. Optional stops at the Gesù (tomb of St. Ignatius) and Sant’Ignazio (Pozzo’s trompe l’oeil ceiling). Group dinner in the centro.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. Then off to St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass and a guided tour: Michelangelo’s Pietà, Bernini’s Baldacchino over the Confession, and the Papal Tombs in the Vatican Grottoes. For those interested, an optional ascent to the Cupola offers panoramic views of Rome and the Vatican. The afternoon is yours: either at leisure for personal prayer and confession, or for an optional walking tour of Trastevere: Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Cecilia, San Crisogono, and Tiber Island. Group dinner.

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 and his commission to St. Thomas Aquinas to compose the Pange Lingua. The Duomo itself is one of the supreme Gothic cathedrals of Italy, with its polychrome golden mosaic façade and Luca Signorelli’s Last Judgment frescoes in the San Brizio Chapel, widely regarded as one of the greatest fresco cycles of the Italian Renaissance, studied directly by Michelangelo before he painted the Sistine Chapel. Lunch on your own in Orvieto’s medieval centro. We continue north to Assisi (approximately 1.5 hours), arriving mid-afternoon, and check in at your religious guesthouse in the historic center. Free time to settle in and walk the medieval streets. Group dinner.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we celebrate Mass at the Basilica of San Francesco and tour 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 early Giotto frescoes and side chapels by Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti, and finally the Upper Church, home to Giotto’s monumental 28-panel fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis, the foundational work of Western narrative painting. We then walk through the medieval streets 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: “Francis, go and rebuild my church, which as you can see is falling into ruin.” In the afternoon we descend to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at the foot of the hill, home to the Portiuncula, the tiny chapel St. Francis rebuilt with his own hands and where he founded the Franciscan Order; the Cappella del Transito, the small cell where St. Francis died on October 3, 1226; and the Rose Garden Chapel where Francis threw himself into the thornbush. Optional time in the centro storico, the medieval Rocca Maggiore, or San Damiano. Group dinner in Assisi.

Breakfast at the guesthouse. This morning we ascend the slopes of Mount Subasio to the Eremo delle Carceri, the forest hermitage where St. Francis withdrew for extended prayer in solitude. A series of caves and grottos mark the places where Francis and his earliest companions prayed, set within an ancient holm oak forest still as it was in his day, one of the most evocative and spiritually charged sites in all of Franciscan Assisi, and one that few pilgrims ever reach. The afternoon offers an optional excursion to Norcia (approximately 1 hour from Assisi), birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, a fitting connection to the monastic heritage encountered earlier at Subiaco. Visit the Monks of Norcia, whose Benedictine community continues its mission of ora et labora in the hills outside the town, and the famed market for local cured meats, cheeses, truffles, and lentils. Pilgrims not joining the Norcia excursion may spend the afternoon at San Damiano, the small church Francis rebuilt with his own hands and where he composed the Canticle of the Creatures, or at leisure in the medieval streets of Assisi. Group farewell dinner. Mass at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli or in Norcia.

Early breakfast and check-out from the Assisi guesthouse. Final Mass in Assisi, with location determined by flight timing. Private motorcoach transfer to Rome Fiumicino Airport, approximately 2.5 hours south. We depart Rome on United Flight 41 at 11:00 AM, arriving back at Newark (EWR) at 2:40 PM the same day. Full return details are in the Group Flight Information section below.