Day 1: Highlights of Florence 

Upon arrival in Florence, you will be met and greeted by your tour guide.

You will begin your journey with a walking tour of Florence which includes: the Cathedral and Baptistery, Piazza della Republica, Via de Tornabuoni, Ponte Vecchio, Michelangelo's David, and more.

After lunch, you may visit the Uffizi Gallery, one of Europe's most important museums which houses Renaissance masterpieces by Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and many more

Dinner at the hotel.

 

Day 2: Chianti 

After breakfast, we will celebrate the Holy Mass at a nearby church. Transfer to the Chianti region for a tour of the idyllic rolling hills and cypress trees of the Tuscan countryside. After lunch, the group will enjoy a wine-tasting experience in one of the premier wine regions of the world: Chianti.

Return to Florence for an afternoon stroll with gelato.

Dinner at the hotel.

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Day 3: San Gimignano

After breakfast, you can celebrate the Holy Mass at a nearby church or in the hotel. You will tour the picturesque medieval town of San Gimignano along the Via Francigena, which at one point boasted 70 towers, 13 of which remain today. You will have the chance to climb Torre Grossa, the Renaissance frescoes in Santa Maria Assunta, Cathedral Plaza, Sant'Agostino, San Pietro, and more.

After lunch, enjoy a free afternoon strolling through the streets that transport you to the past while contemplating the beauty seen in the churches - as a reflection of the love the inhabitants had for the Church and Her Sacraments.

Transfer to Siena and dinner at the hotel.

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Day 4: Siena

After breakfast, you can celebrate the Holy Mass in the 12th-century Church of St Dominic, which houses the head of St Catherine of Siena. You will enjoy the medieval town of Siena along with the important places of the life of the saint that brought the Papacy back to Rome from its exile in Avignon, France. A reflection on her life and mystical experiences point to a love for the Eucharist that made her such a powerful woman who "set the world on fire" at such a young age, and died in Christ at the age of only 33! Enjoy seeing the Duomo, Piazza del Campo, Pubblico Palace, Tower of Mangia, and more.

Transfer to Orvieto for dinner at the hotel.

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Day 5: Orvieto - Lake Bolsena

After breakfast, you will continue to the site of an important medieval Eucharistic miracle in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Pope Urban IV was in residence at Orvieto in 1263 when a German priest, Peter of Prague, had a crisis of faith. The priest was devout, but he found it difficult to believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He was en route to Rome and stopped at the Italian city of Bolsena, where he celebrated Mass at the tomb of St. Christina. As Father Peter spoke the words of the consecration, blood began to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands and onto the altar and the corporal. Shocked, the priest immediately traveled to nearby Orvieto, where Pope Urban listened to his story. The pope asked that the Host and the bloodstained cloth be brought to him in the cathedral. Pope Urban and a number of cardinals and Church dignitaries greeted the procession and had the relics enshrined in the Cathedral at Orvieto. The stained corporal bearing the spots of blood is still displayed there, in a golden reliquary in the Chapel of the Corporal. Pope Urban, deeply affected by this miracle, commissioned St. Thomas Aquinas to compose the Proper for a Mass and an Office honoring the Holy Eucharist as the Body of Christ. The hymns which St. Thomas wrote included the traditional hymns still widely used in Benediction: the Pange Lingua (with its concluding verses, the Tantum Ergo), the Panis Angelicus and O Salutaris Hostia.

One year after the miracle, in August 1264, Pope Urban IV introduced Aquinas’ composition and issued a papal bull instituting the feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ).

The group will then continue to the beautiful Lake Bolsena to enjoy dinner.

Sleep near Lake Bolsena

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Day 6: Assisi 

After breakfast, we will drive to the City of Peace, where the calm and beauty are palpable: Assisi. We will enjoy prayer time where the Lord first appeared to St Francis in Santa Maria Degli Angeli, before continuing on to visit the tomb of the great saint himself and celebrate the Mass in St Francis Basilica. After lunch, we will continue to visit St Francis' companion in holiness, St. Clare, before seeing the plaza where St Francis stripped himself and received the bishop's cloak. We will visit the scenic Eremo dei Carceri, where St Francis and his followers would retreat for prayer and contemplation of God's beauty in creation.

Transfer to hotel in Loreto for dinner. 

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Day 7: Loreto - Lanciano 

After breakfast, the group will continue to visit the Basilica of the Holy House of Loreto, where the walls of Jesus, Mary and Joseph's home have been kept since the end of the 13th century. The historicity of this miracle, although accounts vary of how the house arrived, has been attested to by both scientific studies, by papal affirmation throughout the centuries, and by countless saints who have had recourse to the Black Madonna's intercession. After praying the Rosary, the group will enjoy lunch in town.

After lunch, transfer to Lanciano which has contained for over twelve centuries the first and greatest Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church. This wondrous Event took place in the 8th century A.D. in the little Church of St. Legontian, as a divine response to a Basilian monk's doubt about Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist.

During Holy Mass, after the two-fold consecration, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, In 1970-'71 and taken up again partly in 1981 there took place a scientific investigation by the most illustrious scientist Prof. Odoardo Linoli. The analyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs.The se analyses sustained the following conclusions:

• The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood. The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species. The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart. In the Flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium. The Flesh is a "HEART" complete in its essential structure. The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood-type: AB (Blood-type identical to that which Prof. Baima Bollone uncovered in the Holy Shroud of Turin). In the Blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of the fresh normal blood. In the Blood there were also found these minerals: chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium. The preservation of the Flesh and of the Blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve centuries and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, remains an extraordinary phenomenon.

Depart for San Giovanni Rotondo for Dinner and accommodation.

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Day 8: San Giovanni Rotondo - Pompeii

After breakfast, we will visit The Church of St Padre Pio da Pietrelcina. Here, Mass can be celebrated with many graces sure to be granted to pilgrims. Padre Pio was a great lover of the Eucharist: his Mass from the time of the Consecration onwards reenacts in an exceptionally vivid manner the drama of Calvary, revealing to all eyes one who was both priest and victim. Watching him, it seemed that altar for it often happened that Padre Pio held mystic colloquy with an unseen Presence who spoke with him face to face. It was said that at this point the great bargains were struck with God for the souls of men. It was only during Mass that he removed the half gloves that he wore to cover the wounds in his hands which, together with those in his feet and side, at this point became especially painful.

After lunch, transfer to the great Roman city that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, Pompeii, to see the impressive ruins.

Transfer to hotel for dinner and accommodation

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Day 9: Naples - Roman Cooking Class

After breakfast, you will enjoy visiting the ancient city of Naples, founded by the Greeks before the Romans had arrived on the peninsula. A stop for Sunday Mass at the tomb of San Gennaro, whose blood liquefies every September 19th before enjoying lunch and then transferring to Rome, the Eternal City.

In Rome, the group will enjoy a cooking class of classic Roman dishes, and then feast on Roman classics for dinner. 

 

Day 10: St John Lateran, Santa Scala, Santa Croce

After breakfast, you will continue your Eucharistic journey by visiting Rome's Cathedral, given by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, St John Lateran. Celebrate the Mass near the display of perhaps the most important Eucharistic relic in the world: a piece of the table where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with the Apostles. After lunch, pray while ascending the steps that Jesus climbed up to be judged by Pontius Pilate in the Roman Praetorium we read about in the Gospel in Santa Scala. Finally, visit Santa Croce where you can venerate a relic of the True Cross brought by St Helena.

Dinner in the hotel.

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Day 11: Catacombs, St Paul Outside the Walls - Colosseum

This day after breakfast, the group can reflect on the love that the First Christians had for the Eucharist, and how that love gave them the courage to give their lives freely for Christ. The first visit will be to the Catacombs of Callixtus, where Christians risked their lives amidst violent Roman persecution in order to meet together for prayer and to celebrate the Eucharist. We will then visit St Paul Outside the Walls, where tradition holds that St Paul was decapitated in witness for Christ.

After lunch, we will continue on to receive a guided tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Circus Maximus, where so many were inflamed for the love of Christ of the point of shedding their blood.

 

Day 12: St Peter's Basilica - Vatican Museums - Historic Center 

This morning after breakfast, we will head to St Peter's Basilica to contemplate the grandeur of our heavenly home and the warm maternal embrace of Mother Church. There will be time for Mass, personal prayer and visiting the Pieta, the tombs of St John Paul II and St John XXIII, before heading for a guided tour of the world-class Vatican Museums.

After lunch, the group will enjoy a walk through the historic center of Rome, visiting Navona Square, Trevi Fountain, and the 3,000-year-old Pantheon, while having the chance to savor some delicious gelato.

You will finish the evening with a farewell dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the time spent together and the increased love for Jesus in the Eucharist. 

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Day 13 - Depart

Breakfast in hotel. Transfer to the airport for your flight back home.