The theme of Holy Week and the suffering of Jesus Christ culminating in his crucifixion runs through the itinerary for our visit to northern Italy and southern Germany. We start by visiting the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin, after which we experience the awesome three-hour long Passion Play in the tiny village of Sordevolo, following a 200 year tradition of staging the play every 5 years. We continue to Milan where we view Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, ‘The Last Supper’. Our final port of call is the Bavarian town of Oberammergau, where the villagers have staged the Passion Play every ten years since 1634. Apart from the short stays in the cities of Turin, Milan and Munich, we enjoy the beauty of the mountains and lakes of the Piedmont region of Italy, and the picturesque alpine village of Oberammergau. As if this is not enough, we stay in the sanctuary of Oropa, near Sordevolo which dates back to the 4th century and its foundation by Bishop Eusebius which is like being set down in Camelot. Its scale defies imagination; purpose built accommodation which can house 1000 people and a complex complete with bars, resaurants, shops and a pharmacy. The particular object of devotion at Oropa is Our Lady, represented by a beautiful medieval statue of a Black Madonna, but this is a place that belongs to the people of the region and is also appreciated for the sublime natural beauty of its position. We also visit the lakes of Orta and Maggiore during our stay here.