The first days of the tour will be spent visiting places associated with St Peter and St Paul. This morning we will visit two places where both Peter and Paul are said to have received hospitality in Rome; first of all the church of St Prisca, said to have been built over the house of Priscilla and Aquila, two important members of the early Christian community. Remains have been discovered under the church of a late 1st century building in which there was a domus ecclesia or house church. We will be visiting these and also the well-preserved Mithraeum where ceremonies of the cult of Mithras took place. Afterwards we will visit the church of St Pudenziana, said to have been built over the house of the Roman senator, Pudens, where Peter stayed during his time in Rome. The remains of a house of the late 1st century are not accessible to the public but we can admire the beautiful apse mosaic, the oldest example still surviving in Rome, completed shortly after the church was built in the 4th century. This afternoon we will visit the Abbey of the Three Fountains, site of the martyrdom of St Paul and the church of St Paul without the Walls where the saint was buried. We also hope to visit the Ostiense necropolis (closed at the moment but due to be open next year) which was discovered during the rebuilding of St Paul's and which gives an idea of what the burial site of Paul was like.

Today we will visit sites associated with the Church after the apostolic age, when, as the numbers of Christians grew, more organisation of the church was needed. We will visit first the church of St Clement, considered to be the third Pope after St Peter and the author of a famous letter written on behalf of the church in Rome to the church in Corinth urging an end to the disorders there. Although the later stories of St Clement's life and martyrdom are fantasy, he was certainly an important person in the early Roman church and his letter continued to be read in Corinth after every gospel. Afterwards we will visit the Colosseum, possibly the site of the martyrdom of another important early saint, Ignatius of Antioch who met his death by being thrown to wild beasts in Rome in 107 and who, as he was being brought from Antioch under armed guard, wrote a famous series of seven letters to Christian churches. This afternoon we stay in the Trastevere area to visit the subterranean areas of two churches, St Cecilia and St Crisogono under which, with a special guided visit, we will be able to see the remains of two "domus ecclesia" or house churches.We will also visit the Excubitorium, the headquarters of the Vigili, the fire brigade of Roman times, made necessary by the many devastating fires in the city.

Today we concentrate on the great change brought about in the church by the coming to power of the Emperor Constantine and the freedom to practise their religion, which this gave to the Christians. Buildings for Christian worship could now be built, and Constantine embarked on a programme of building enormous Christian churches, usually over the site of the burial of important saints. We, however, will visit one of the lesser known of these buildings, in fact much of the Constantinian church that we will see is now in ruins. It was a huge cemetery basilica built near the catacombs where St Agnes was buried but fortunately the mausoleum where Costanza, daughter of Constantine was buried, is still intact and we will be able to admire beautiful mosaics dating from the 4th century and see how Christian buildings adapted a pagan style of decoration to their own purposes. We will also visit the catacombs of St Agnes and the later basilica of St Agnes built over her tomb dating from the 8th century. In the afternoon, accompanied by a professor from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Architecture we will visit the catacombs of Ss. Marcellinus and Peter where we can see wonderful Christian frescoes dating from the 2^nd to the 4^th centuries.

Today we take a walk on the Celian Hill, to see the round church of St Stefano (if it is open) but especially for a guided visit to the Roman houses under the church of Ss John and Paul where we can see how a series of ordinary shops and houses were transformed into a wealthy mansion which in its turn was turned into a place of Christian veneration as the site of the martyrdom of Ss. John and Paul, who died during the last period of persecution of Christians during the reign of Julian the Apostate. Their story, considered in the past to have been a pious legend, has been confirmed by the results of the excavations done at this site. We will then continue to see the church of St Gregory, near the site of the monastery built by the saint in his own family residence. St Gregory's pontificate marks a new phase in the history of the church; the authority and importance of the Pope becomes all important in Rome as the authority of the Emperor diminishes and disappears. The mediaeval age is about to begin.

Morning at leisure in Rome. This afternoon we transfer to the airport for our return flight to the UK.