DAY 1 DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA
Enjoy full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight to
Rome.
DAY 2 ARRIVE ROME (6 NIGHTS)
We will be met
at the airport by our tour manager/guide, where we will board our
own private coach and transfer into Rome, “The Eternal City.” This
afternoon we will take an introductory Walking Tour,
commencing outside Castel Sant’ Angelo. We will then cross the
Tiber River and walk to Piazza Navona, which was built on the
foundations of Domitian’s Circus. This magnificent square, designed
in the 17th century by Bernini, is full of life and is highlighted
by one of Rome’s most spectacular fountains, the fountain of the
Four Rivers. The square is often filled with local artists, and
the surrounding neighborhood features many charming cafes and
restaurants.
DAY 3 ROME (THE CITY OF THE CAESARS)
Today we will explore
Rome’s most spectacular remains from the powerful Roman Empire,
commencing with a specialist-guided tour of the Colosseum,
considered the symbol of Rome’s eternity. Completed under Titus in
80 A.D., over 55,000 spectators could watch the gladiatorial games.
We continue with a walk through the ruins and excavations of the
Roman Forum, featuring the remains of magnificent temples,
basilicas and triumphal arches, which once formed the heart of the
Empire. Next we
will ascend Michelangelo’s graceful Cordonata stairway, leading to
Piazza Campidoglio atop the Capitoline Hill. This site has been the
heart of Rome and center of its city government since ancient
times. We will then visit the Capitoline Museums - two palaces
that were designed by Michelangelo. We will see many important
paintings and sculpture from the Empire and the Renaissance,
including the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, a copy of
which has now been returned to its original position in the square,
as well as the Etruscan bronze She-Wolf.
DAY 4 ROME (THE CITY
OF THE POPES)
Today we will explore the Vatican, the world’s smallest independent
nation, and the center of the Catholic world. Our day begins with a
specialist-guided tour of the Vatican Museums, which contains
one of the most impressive collections of art in the world. Our
tour will include the map rooms, the tapestry rooms, the magnificent
Raphael Rooms, as well as the spectacular
Sistine Chapel, highlighted by Michelangelo’s ceiling and
Last Judgment. We continue with a visit to St. Peter's
Basilica, the largest church in the western world and the most
important point of pilgrimage in the Catholic world. Highlights of
our visit will include: The Pieta by Michelangelo, the tomb
of St. Peter and Bernini’s magnificent Baldacchino. The
remainder of the afternoon will be free to explore and shop in Rome
at our leisure.
- Your first concert performance will be today
DAY 5 THE CATACOMBS & TIVOLI
This morning we
travel just outside of Rome for a visit to the Catacombs of St.
Callixtus, funerary tunnels which represent the first known
cemetery of the Christian community of Rome. There are many
sepulchral chambers and almost half a million tombs of early
Christians. We will see paintings, sculptures, and epigraphs, which
provide invaluable material for the study of the life and customs of
the ancient Christians. Our day continues to nearby Tivoli, where we will visit Hadrian’s Villa, one of
the greatest estates ever erected in the world. Hadrian designed
the villa to recreate some of the architectural wonders that had
impressed him most on his many travels. A patron of the arts, a
lover of beauty, and even something of an architect, Hadrian did not
merely want to replicate rooms or even palaces he had seen; rather,
he reconstructed entire valleys, complete with the temples that had
made them famous. We return to our hotel in Rome for the evening.
- Your second concert performance will be today
DAY 6 ROME (TRADITION AND LEGEND)
Today
we will visit the Museo Nazionale Romano. Founded in 1889, it
currently occupies part of the Baths of Diocletian, once the largest
bath in ancient Rome. This afternoon we will take a Walking Tour
past the Temples of Apollo, Fortuna and Virilis and the Theater of
Marcellus to the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, most famous
today for the Mouth of Truth in the porch. Behind this
church is the ancient chariot-racing stadium, the Circus Maximus.
Nearby we will find a most unique keyhole through which
appears an extraordinary view of St. Peter’s Dome.
Our afternoon
concludes with a visit to the Pantheon, one of the grandest
and the best-preserved Roman monuments, which today houses the tombs
of Raphael, Vittorio Emmanuelle II, and Queen Margherita.
DAY 7 ROME (TRADITION AND LEGEND)
Today we venture to one of the holiest places in Rome, the San
Giovanni in Laterano Basilica. St. John Lateran is on of the
four largest basilicas in Rome. In the Piazza of the basilica rises
a 15th century B.C. Egyptian Obelisk, the tallest in Rome. The
staircase located in the Lateran Palace is the Scala Sancta;
reputedly the 28 marble steps are the original steps that Christ
climbed in the Palace of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. Next we will
travel just north of the city to the Temple Israelitico
Jewish Synagogue. The monument was built in an eclectic mixed style
(Roman, Greek, and Assyro-Babylonian) in 1904 by the Roman
architects Osvaldo Armanni and Vincent Costa. In the interior,
there are plaques that honor victims of both World Wars, as well as
a collection of original documents and objects documenting Jewish
History in Rome.
- Your third and final concert performance will be today
DAY 8 DEPARTURE FROM ROME
Our enjoyable and rewarding tour will come to an end as our tour
manager/guide accompanies us to the airport for the return flight
home. |
