Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $200 per person.
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline.
All breakfasts. All dinners. Dinner with entertainment at Le Terme del Colosseo on Day 6.
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout.
Entrances and activities as noted on itinerary.
passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Baggage Loss or Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Arrival transfer
Rome City Sightseeing: Local Guide, Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, Visit to the Vatican Museums, Headset receiver for the Vatican sites, Visit to the Sistine Chapel, Visit to St. Peter's Basilica
Excursion to the Via Appia Catacombs and Castelli Romani: Catacombs of San Sebastiano or Catacombs of San Callisto, Alban Hills towns, Sightseeing stop in Castel Gandolfo to view the Papal Palace, Sightseeing stop in Frascati
Optional Excursion to Assisi: Local Guide, Visit to the Basilica of St. Francis
Dinner with entertainment at Le Terme del Colosseo
Departure transfer
Rome is your destination; a wide-bodied jet is your vehicle. Swoop down over the Alps and touch down on the wide concrete runway at Fiumicino Airport. You've arrived in Italy!
Proceed to your centrally-located hotel, settle in and get ready to explore your surroundings.
If your schedule allows, consider a visit to the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome's most celebrated sights, which was the terminus of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. Throw a coin over your right shoulder and into the spray to ensure your return to this wonderful city!
Set out on a sightseeing tour of Rome.
A full-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Rome, will accompany your group.
Discover outstanding masterpieces collected for the Vatican Museums since the early 1500s. See exceptional statues from antiquity, such as Laocoön and His Son and the Apollo Belvedere, as well as stunning Renaissance paintings, notably the The School of Athens fresco in the Raphael Rooms.
Marvel at Michelangelo's Last Judgment and brightly-colored ceiling frescoes in the Cappella Sistina.
Enter the sanctuary recognized as the world's largest church. The Basilica di San Pietro also houses priceless works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's Dove of the Holy Spirit.
Today's excursion takes south of Rome.
You will visit either the Catacombs of San Sebastiano or the Catacombs of San Callisto.
It is said that at the dawn of Christianity, during the height of the persecution of Christians by the Romans, the remains of St. Peter and St. Paul were transferred to the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. A stone believed to bear a footprint of Christ is also held there. The Catacombs of San Callisto served as the official burial grounds for the first bishops of Rome. Its Crypt of the Popes houses the graves of early pontiffs.
The volcanic Alban Hills region, set within the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, includes two crater lakes and thirteen picturesque towns founded in the pre-Roman era of Ancient Latium. They are collectively called "Castles of Rome" because they were later chosen by popes and prominent Roman families as cool places (literally) to establish their summer country estates.
Head up to the highest point of a town set on a long ridge above Lake Albano. It's said to occupy the site of the ancient citadel of Alba Longa, the mythical mother city of all ancient Latium towns, and, by extension, of Rome itself. Nowadays, its name, Castel Gandolfo, is synonymous with the official summer residence of the Pope: the Papal Palace, or Apostolic Palace, built in the 1600s on the site of one of the emperor Domitian's palaces.
Discover the town that's perhaps the most elegant of the Castelli Romani with its villas and parks. Frascati is also widely known for its production of cheese, jams, and DOC white wines.
Today, your coach takes you to the Assisi of St. Francis and St. Clare, where overflowing windowboxes adorn the ubiquitous pink stone buildings.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Assisi, will accompany your group.
Step into the basilica built on the Hill of Paradise. It consists of two superimposed churches resting on a series of arches: the Lower Basilica, built over the crypt which contains the tomb of St. Francis, and the Upper Basilica, decorated with frescoes by 13th-century masters Giotto and Cimabue.
Enjoy your free time in Rome.
Tonight, enjoy dinner with entertainment at the restaurant Le Terme del Colosseo, which is located between the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, in halls with arched ceilings and exposed stone. It offers a variety of Italian dishes accompanied by musical entertainment titled "Roman Fantasy," with singers in costume.
Ciao, Europa! Statistics show that visitors do in fact return to Rome, although it may not have anything to do with coins in a fountain. Race the sun and arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
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