Duration: 10 Days
Dates: May 27 - June 05, 2024
Departure City: Kansas City, MO (MCI)

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Detailed Itinerary

MAY 27th - Departure to Athens

MAY 28th – Arrive Athens – overnight Athens Royal Olympic Hotel

MAY 29th –Athens full day tour
Breakfast is served from 6am. Tour to begin at 8. 30am.Tour to begin with the city tour drive or the Acropolis. Lunch at a local restaurant near the Acropolis and the museum around 12.30-1.00 pm depending on traffic on clients’ own expense. Afternoon tour of the Acropolis Museum. Return to hotel at approximately 4.00 pm. Remainder of afternoon at leisure to walk around, shop or rest. Dinner at 7.00 pm at hotel. Overnight Athens Royal Olympic Hotel

MAY 30th – Corinth tour
Today, we will visit Corinth. Corinth is a city blessed with a superb location, fertile plains, and virtually impregnable refuge. Excavations reveal that the ancient city was huge and wealthy; a survivor of the numerous invasions but devastated by earthquakes. St. Paul lived and worked in Corinth for 18 months, making converts where he could. The Bema (platform) where the Roman governor tried him is still visible. See one of Corinth’s most striking ancient buildings – the Temple of Apollo, seven of whose original columns still stand. Walk through the remains of the Market Place, a colonnaded square once surrounded by many small shops. See the celebrated Fountain of Priene, which has produced water from earliest times, and the Lechaion Road, formerly the main thoroughfare to the port of Lechaion. You will then visit the incredible Corinth Canal. The concept of cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth to link the Ionian and Aegean seas was first proposed by the tyrant Periander, founder of Ancient Corinth. The magnitude of the task defeated him, so he opted instead to build a paved slipway across which sailors dragged small ships on rollers, a method used until the 13th century. Nero, Rome’s most infamous emperor, inaugurated one attempt in 67 AD with his golden spade, but it was finally completed in 1893. .Dinner at Zafiros restaurant with Greek dance show, overnight Athens Royal Olympic Hotel

MAY 31st – Beach day – overnight Athens Royal Olympic Hotel

JUNE 1st – Departure transfer to Rome. JUNE 1st Arrival: Stepping Back into the Roman World. –OSTIA ANTICA
After the baggage claim area, we meet our tour escort and head to the coast to visit the spectacular ruins of Ostia Antica, the port of ancient Rome in New Testament times. Break for lunch at the “borgo” the picturesque medieval area of Ostia Meet the local guide to visit the excavations that continue today and provide insight into what Roman cities were like in the 1st century. Ostia was a cosmopolitan city, which is reflected in the various temples dedicated to Mithra (Persian), Magna Mater (Asia Minor), Isis (Egypt), and a Jewish synagogue. We have the opportunity to view the inside of a Roman house of more affluent community members, the remnants decorated with preserved frescoes and several insulae, the dwellings of the common people in Roman cities. Check in at our hotel. Dinner and overnight (D)

JUNE 2nd Theme: Paul came to Rome the first time under guard and house arrest
08.30 am This morning we will begin our tour at the Three Fountains Abbey, the place of Paul’s martyrdom. Legend claims that when Paul was decapitated, his head bounced three times and fountains miraculously sprang out when it touched the ground. We will see the cell where Paul was held the night before his execution and walk down the road that the Apostle would have taken from the cell to the site of his beheading. Continue by bus driving along the Ancient Appian way. We will visit the Catacombs, which are extremely important for the art history of early Christians. At first they were used both for burial and the memorial services and celebrations of the anniversaries of Christian martyrs (following similar Roman customs). They probably were not used for regular worship. Many modern depictions of the catacombs show them as hiding places for Christian populations during times of persecution. Next we will visit the place where the bones of Paul have recently been found, St. Paul Outside the Walls. This is the man responsible for carrying the Christian faith to the Gentiles, who wrote much of the New Testament, the man famous for having poured out his life for Christ. 01.30 pm We enjoy a restaurant lunch at the Ghetto, the area along the river Tiber where the Roman Jewish population has been leaving since ancient times, probably before Paul reached Rome. We will taste the original Roman cuisine, as the the “Carciofi alla Giudia” (Roman Jewish artichokes) 03:30 pm. Our tour continues to St. Paul alla Regola, which, according to tradition, is the most accredited hypothesis of the first home of Paul in Rome. Here he lived between 61 and 63 AD, for eighteen months as required by law, pending trial. We regain our bus and return to the hotel. Dinner is at our leisure tonight (B.L.)

JUNE 3rd: Theme: To be Paul in the World that was Rome
How God used a man with a Hebrew heart, a Greek tongue and Roman mind. Rome was held together as much by spectacle and entertainment as by anything else. Paul used motifs in his Epistles that sprung from the daily images of Roman life. From Trajan's Column, jewel of architecture and sculpture made by Apollodorus of Damascus, our guide will show us along the Via dei Fori, the ruins of the fori that the great emperors built as lasting memory of their power. On foot we will reach the Capitoline Hill , once political and religious center of the town, which today is the seat of the Municipality. The stairway will lead you to the Piazza del Campidoglio, the magnificent result of a single project by Michelangelo, with a copy of the most famous equestrian statue in the world, the statue of Marcus Aurelius, in the middle. Behind Piazza del Campidoglio we will find a natural terrace providing the best panoramic point over the valley of the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Our tour ends at the the Arch of Constantine, erected to commemorate the victory of the emperor over Maxentius in the 4th century A.D. (tradition says that before the battle the Emperor saw a brilliant cross in the sky and said the famous words “in hoc signo vinces”) and at the Colosseum, which symbolizes the eternity of the Roman civilization. Return to the hotel. Time at leisure for lunch and to relax. This afternoon, we will walk to the Trinità Dei Monti, and walk down on the famus Spanish Steps, to reach the most beautiful fashion district. Next, we will walk to the Trevi Fountain, the Panheon and Navona Square. Dinner is on our own. Independent return to our hotel. Overnight (B)

JUNE 4th: Rome
08:00 am Depart the hotel to Ostia, the beach of Rome. We will enjoy a half day at leisure to relax. After lunch, we return to the hotel, refresh and then drive to the Vatican Museums for a late afternoon guided tour. There is a strong relationship between faith and reason. In centuries of history we have understood the importance of the human value of art and its contribution, in harmony with the Divine Word, as an instrument of evangelization. Every artist could, through words and images, create the imago between iconology and iconography, with competence of intent and technique of execution. Today we can admire all this in a unique place. The itinerary of the Vatican Museums contains a show of art, history and faith in comparison with all the "Divine feeling" of the world. If the Sistine Chapel explains how much Michelangelo wanted to leave a message of faith to humanity, until today and forever, the Raphael’s Rooms are an obligatory path in our history because we do not lose the thread between “fides et ratio", between our faith and the reason. Two simple walls, two themes in comparison. We cannot reason if we do not possess the knowledge "causarum cognitio" taken from Cicero Divinarer Notitia (Knowledge of the Divine Things). Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight (BD)

JUNE 5th: Flight back home

* In case of unforeseen events, this itinerary is subject to change.