We fly from Leeds Bradford Airport to Rome on a scheduled Jet2 flight. On arrival we transfer to the Casa Maria alle Fornaci for a four-night stay. Dinner will be in a local restaurant. 

 After breakfast we travel to the Basilica of St Mary Major.From here we visit the nearby church of S. Pressede (St Praxedes), which is an early Christian foundation with some of the finest apse mosaics in Rome. We continue to the cathedral of Rome: St. John Lateran, and afterwards cross the road to see the Scala Santa – the steps brought back from Jerusalem by Empress Helena in the 4^th century and said to be those ascended by Christ on his way to Calvary. We return to a point near to Piazza Navona where we have time to purchase lunch and to enjoy an afternoon at leisure. This evening we meet in the Piazza and walk to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Dinner this evening is at L’Eau Vive Restaurant which is ran by an order of Belgian Missionary Nuns. After dinner we return by coach to the hotel.

 After breakfast, we walk to St. Peter’s to take our seats for the Papal General Audience in St. Peter’s Square (if The Holy Father is in Rome at the time). After a break for lunch, the afternoon will be free for you to explore the Vatican, those who wish may like to visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel (entrance approx. £18 per person).

After breakfast we ascend Michelangelo’s Campidoglio for the view over the Forum, and continue past the Coliseum, visiting the Mamertine Prison, where Ss. Peter and Paul where imprisoned. Our final visit is to the beautiful church of San Clemente with its splendid mosaics, built over the remains of a Temple of Mithras and Ancient catacombs. After time at leisure to purchase lunch we visit the Basilica of St. Paul Without the Walls, built over the site of the saint’s martyrdom, then go on to one of the catacombs, burial place for the early Christians.

 After breakfast we leave Rome and drive north to the Rieti Valley, where St Francis spent much time after being driven from Assisi, and Greccio where he devised the first nativity play. There is an optional lunch today in Belvedere restaurant (£12 per person) in the village of Greccio.Afterwards we proceed north to Assisi and make a stop at the suburb of Santa Maria degli Angeli and visit the Baroque church which envelops St Francis’ original tiny chapel the Porziuncula, near to where he died, before we continue to the old town of Assisi where we check into our hotel for dinner and a two-night stay.

This morning we walk to the Basilica of St Francis where we have a guided tour by a resident friar. We see the frescoes attributed to Giotto in the Upper Basilica and those by Cimabue and Simone de Martine in the Lower Basilica.This afternoon we travel by taxi to two Franciscan sanctuaries on the edge of town. We take a twisting taxi ride to the Hermitage, situated high above Assisi on Monte Subasio, which was a place of retreat and meditation for Francis and his followers and is still an oasis of quiet today. The taxis wait for about forty minutes here before driving down to San Damiano below Assisi, which was where St Francis received the message from the Crucifix to repair God’s church and where, later, St Clare spent her cloistered life and founded her community. We return to our hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.

Transfer to Rome Ciampino Airport, for our return Jet2 flight to Leeds Bradford.