ITALY & ITS HOLY LAND
11 Days, 10 nights
DAY 1: WELCOME TO ITALY – MILAN APT – MILAN
Transfer from Milan Airport to the center of Milan. When the arrival is early enough and there is time avaialble you can take advantage of a half day guided tour of the city including the Duomo and the Sforzesco Castle.
Check in to the hotel and dinner tonight will be preceded by a Wecome Cocktail.
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The most popular building in Milan is its cathedral. It is a symbol of the greatest work of gothic architecture in Italy. It is the third cathedral in the world. The inside is amazing. The history of Milan is closely connected with the system of canals, that pass through the whole city. The area characterized by the Navigli is certainly one of the most picturesque of Milan. Typical, old Milan houses and craftsmen’s workshops remind one of passed times. Today this area is a very fashionable area of the city, there are boutiques and ateliers of artists of Milan, cafés and restaurants.
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DAY 2: MILAN – PADUA
Breakfast at hotel. Afterwards depart to Padua, St. Anthony's City and visit the Saint's Tomb in the Basilica.
Dinner at the Hotel and overnight.
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This city is one of the cultural and economic centers in the Northeast of Italy. Padua is a pilgrimage city, millions of pilgrims come here every year to visit the "Basilica di Sant’Antonio", where you can visit the grave of "Sant’Antonio". The other reason to visit this city is Giotto. In Padua you will find the most complete and the best preserved collection of works by Giotto. |
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DAY 3: PADOVA – VENICE– PADUA
After Breakfast you depart for a day trip to Venice, travelling by a half day guided boat excursion via the Brenta Canal via the deluxe river boat, Il Burchiello. From Il Burchiello transfer by bus to Venice with lunch enroute. On arrival a half day guided sightseeing tour of the city inlcuding the Gold Basilica, Doges Palace, St Marks Square and the Bridge of Sighs.
Venice has more than 200 churches, distributed in every corner of the city. From St. Mark's Basilica to Madonna della Salute Church ( Our Lady of Good Health Church ), to the oldest S. Giacomo di Rialto, each one testifies the art, the culture, the tradition and the 1000 year old history of Venice. These churches, besides being wonderful architectural examples, hold art masterpieces such as pictures, frescoes and sculptures realized by artists like Tiziano, Bellini, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Veronese, Sansovino and many more.
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Return by motorboat and bus to your hotel in Padua and dinner tonight will be at a restaurant in Padua
DAY 4: PADOVA – FLORENCE
After breakfast at the hotel transfer today to Florence and your hotel
After lunch this afternoon a guided walking tour of the historical center with a visit Cathedral, the Old Bridge and other sites of this Renaissance city.
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Florence, spreads on the banks of the Arno, between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian seas, almost in the middle of the Italian peninsula. It is a city which bustles with industry and craft, commerce and culture, art and science. The treasures of this magical city need little introduction. Florence is the artistic capital of Italy and, to many, the country’s very soul. The beauty and majesty of the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Campanile, the glorious palaces of the Renaissance’s noble families all must be seen to be believed. Florence is truly the city of art and whether artist or lover of art the sights here are overwhelmingly stunning. You can easily stroll to museums, shopping district, galleries, and restaurants.
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DAY 5: FLORENCE – CHIUSI DELLA VERNA – ASSISI
After breakfast depart to Assisi with a stop along the way in Chiusi Della Verna to visit the sanctuary where St. Francis was given the seals. Arrive in Assisi. Dinner and overnight in hotel.
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In the summer of 1224 St. Francis on the mountain of Verna was in his usual periods of Silence and prayer. During his permanence he asked God to be able to participate with everything of his being in the Passion of Christ, mystery of love and pain. The Lord listened to and appeared him under form of serafino crucifix leaving him in gift the seals of his passion. Francis outwardly became so, also image of Christ to which already with the heart and the life so much resembled.
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Breakfast at hotel followed by a full day guided sightseeing tourof the city, visiting the most important places in St. Francis and St. Clara's lives.
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Includes St. Francis's superior and inferior Basilica where the Saint's tomb is located and also St. Clara's Basilica and Tomb. Then visit St. Mary of Angel's Basilica which houses the Porziuncola Chapel, the roseto fo Miracle and the place where St. Francis died.
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Dinner tonight at a local restaurant.
DAY 7: ASSISI – LORETO – SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO
Breakfast at Hotel. Depart and visit one of the richest Italian cities in religious symbols, Loreto. Transfer to San Giovanni Rotondo. Accommodation and dinner tonight in your hotel in San Giovanni Rotondo.
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An ancient tradition reports that the Holy House of Loreto is the same room of the existing Madonna to Nazareth, in Galilea, and here Mary was born, she was educated and and received the angelic announcement |
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DAY 8: SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO – MONTE SANT’ANGELO – SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO
Breakfast at hotel followed by a half day guided tour dedicated to visiting where Friar Saint Padre Pio lived and his tomb.
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Around the grotto dedicated to Saint Michael an extraordinary and unique town has arisen over the centuries. Monte Sant’Angelo has always been indissolubly united to the shrine because of its particular importance to
all Christianity. We can only point out to visitors the most interesting and important monuments of the “Town of the Archangel”. It has been said that an inhabited nucleus rose around the shrine, but the
first real neighborhood that can be identified with the Junno district, according to some scholars, would be even anterior to the era of the apparitions and though the first historical information of its existence goes back to the 10th century one can still see evident signs of the old boundary wall of the medieval town (9th-13th centuries), subsequently destroyed because of the l development that Monte Sant’Angelo has had in the last two centuries. The historical town centre is dominated by the high bulk of the castle that testifies to the presence and dominion of the Normans, the Swabians, the Angevins and the Aragons.
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A short tour of St. Angel's Hill before your return to your hotel. dinner tonight will be in a local restaurant
DINNER AND OVERNIGHT.
DAY 9: SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO – LANCIANO – ROME
Morning Breakfast and then depart for Rome. Along the way stop in Lanciano and visit the “Eucharistic Miracle” sanctuary.
In the 8th century A.D. in the little Church of St. Legontian, in Lanciano took place the first and greatest Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church. It happened as a divine response to a Basilian monk doubt about Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist. During Holy Mass, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, which coagulated into five irregular globules.
Arrive in Rome, accommodations in your hotel with dinner tonight.
DAY 10: ROME
Breakfast at hotel and leave for an early morning tour to the Vatican to visit the the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Cathedral. The afternoon is at your leisure and tonight a special Farewell Dinner.
The Vatican State is the smallest State in the world, and what remains of temporal dominions of the Church, which were annexed to Italy at the end of 1800's with the unification of the country. St. Peter Square, destination of all Catholics coming from all over the world, embraced by the colonnade, architectural masterpiece by Bernini, under the symbolic protection of the "Cupolone", as the Romans call Michelangelo's dome.
Vatican Museums: A vast complex of museums, along a circuit of over 7km, containing one of the largest collections in the world, includes the Pinacoteca Vaticana (comprising 17 rooms with paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Bellini, Raphael, Titian; the Museo Gregoriano egizio (consisting of 10 halls with Egyptian originals); the Museo Pio-Clementino (with the famous Apollo Belvedere, the Laoocon); Museo Gregoriano etrusco, Stanze and Loggia by Raphael; the Borgia Apartment (with the famous fresco by Pinturicchio); the Sistine Chapel; the gallery of the Maps, Tapestries and Candelabra; Biblioteca Vaticana; Museo Gregoriano Profano (with the Chiaramonti Niobid of the 4th-3rd century B.C.) the Sala delle Nozze Aldobrandini (with the famous fresco of the Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxana); Museo Missionario Etnologico (on the history of the Roman Catholic missions); and the museo storico (includes antique carriages, arms and uniforms of the former military corps of the Vatican).
The museum wing and view the incomparable collections of manuscripts, sculptures, and paintings, and explore the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The Basilica of St. Peter, where Michelangelo’s "Pieta" resides, is in the heart of the Vatican City, an independent sovereign state on the right bank of the Tiber river, in the centre of Rome.
DAY 11: ROME TO AIRPORT– END OF SERVICES
Breakfast at Hotel and transfer to the Rome airport for your flight home.
If you would like to extend your holiday in Rome, please let our office know.
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