A Pilgrimage to Italy
for the New Year

The group departs Los Angeles (LAX) on the designated nonstop flight to Rome, booked individually by each family. A short prayer before boarding places the journey under the protection of St. Michael the Archangel. Full flight details are in the Group Flight Information section below.

The nonstop lands in Rome at midday, where the ProRome Tour Manager meets the group and transfers everyone to a pilgrim guesthouse in the Vatican area, with the metro close at hand. Rome is covered on foot and by metro throughout the week, the way Romans move. After time to rest, a first walk ends in St. Peter’s Square at dusk, followed by a welcome dinner together. Benvenuti a Roma!

Morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica is followed by a guided visit: Michelangelo’s Pietà, the confessio, and the grottoes at the tomb of St. Peter, with a Scavi excavation request submitted for the group. The afternoon is free; Trastevere and San Silvestro in Capite are fine options on this feast of St. Sylvester. As the year closes, the group attends the Te Deum with the Holy Father at St. Peter’s, then celebrates with a festive New Year’s Eve dinner.

Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the most fitting of places, where the relic of the Holy Crib is venerated in these Christmas days. At noon the group joins the Holy Father for the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square. The afternoon reaches St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome; the Scala Sancta, climbed on the knees by those who wish; and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, with the relics of the Passion brought to Rome by St. Helena.

Morning Mass opens the day, followed by the Colosseum and Roman Forum, where the empire that persecuted the Church was conquered by it. The afternoon rides the metro to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, raised over the tomb of the Apostle to the Gentiles, completing all four Major Basilicas of Rome.

Sunday Mass on the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, followed by a guided visit of the Vatican Gardens or the Vatican Museums, determined by availability at the time of booking, ending either way beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. The afternoon descends into the catacombs on the Appian Way, where the early Christians prayed at the tombs of the martyrs, with a holy hour before dinner.

The private coach departs Rome and climbs to the hilltop city of Orvieto, where the Duomo houses the Corporal of the Miracle of Bolsena, the altar cloth of the thirteenth-century Eucharistic miracle that occasioned the Feast of Corpus Christi. After Mass and time in the town, the drive continues north to Siena for the evening in the medieval city of St. Catherine.

Mass at the Basilica of San Domenico, where the relics of St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church, are venerated. The morning continues to the striped marble Duomo and the great shell-shaped Campo, where St. Bernardine’s IHS monogram crowns the Palazzo Pubblico. In the afternoon the coach carries the group to Assisi and a monastery guesthouse within the old city walls.

Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany at the tomb of St. Francis, followed by the Giotto frescoes of the Lower and Upper Churches. Late in the morning the group visits the Cathedral of San Rufino, where St. Francis and St. Clare were baptized, before lunch. The afternoon visits the Basilica of St. Clare, the tomb of St. Carlo Acutis at Santa Maria Maggiore, and San Damiano, where the crucifix spoke to Francis.

A mountain day trip to Norcia, birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, with Mass at the basilica reopened in 2025 after the earthquakes and a visit to the Benedictine monks of San Benedetto in Monte, including a sampling of their celebrated Birra Nursia as the monks’ hospitality allows. The order of this day is confirmed with the monks, around their schedule of prayer.

A morning stop at St. Mary of the Angels for Mass at the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel where the Franciscan movement began, before the coach returns to Rome by early afternoon. A group lunch is provided today; the rest of the day and evening are free, with dinner out on the city on one’s own. An optional visit to the Pontifical North American College may be arranged.

After breakfast, a private transfer brings the group to Rome Fiumicino Airport for the return flight to Los Angeles, carrying home the graces of ten nights in Italy, from the tomb of St. Peter to the birthplace of St. Benedict.