After the wonderfully fulfilling days you spent in Greece you'll travel by ferry across the Adriatic to the southern Italian city of Bari where   you will be met by an air conditioned bus and transported to Benevento for your first Italian lunch.  After another hour or so on board the bus, acclimatizing yourself to the Italian geography, you'll arrive at the amazing and world-famous ruins of Pompei, a once thriving and important Roman colony in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius.

St. Paul himself walked the slopes of the mountain but may only have heard rumors of Pompei's total destruction by the thunderous eruption of 79 AD.  The city was buried to a depth of 20 meters under a heavy rain of ash, soot and poisonous gases, and was not rediscovered until the late 18th century.

Your guide will take you through the ruins and give you a remarkable look into the lives of the ancient Greeks before Christianity took hold.

Tonight you will stay at Pozzuoli, near Naples, where Paul, after weeks at sea, landed on the Italian mainland.  Here you can visit the Roman amphitheater and enjoy the ambiance of the port. You can also savour Italian espresso...and perhaps a slice or two of Neapolitan pizza, the best in the world!

• Arrive at Bari, Italy from Patras, Greece
   
• Transfer to Pompei in air conditioned coach
  
  Lunch at Benevento and short tour
   
• Visit Pompei - 2.5 hour tour
   
• Transfer to Pozzuoli and arrive at hotel
  
  Dinner (hotel)

This morning you depart for Rome, but on the way, you'll stop at other places visited by Paul.  Heading north you'll first visit Minturno, a nicely-preserved Roman village on the old Roman highway, the Appian Way.  From there you'll go to Foro Appio, just 18 km from Rome, the site of the Tres Tabernae - not 3 taverns, but thee shops serving passing travelers.  Here two other highways from other points join with the Appian way on the last leg into the Eternal City .  Paul may have stayed here at one of the first "road houses" of his day - the Mancio - and according to sacred writing was greeted by a band of early Christians out of Rome, who escorted him there.  In Minturno you'll walk through the doors of a church dedicated to the Saint's memory.

Before you travel to Rome, however, you'll make one more stop, this time at another place visited by Paul, the city of Palestrina, settled in the 8th or 7th century BC.  Here the Greeks built, on an Hellenistic, model, three great temples, various ruins of which remain.  Of the three, the Prenestine temple is the best preserved.

And after Palestrina...it's a short jaunt to Rome itself.

Ah, Rome...so complex, so multilayered and so compellingly  multidimensional.  Seat of power for the Romans, and of the Papacy, and since 1877, the capital city of the modern state of Italy.

St. Paul surely left his mark here, even though he was a humble man - a leather tanner. First and foremost in the grandeur of St Paul's Basilica in Vatican City.  But, there are many other buildings and monuments dedicated to Paul and you will visit many of them.

You will visit the Roman neighborhood where Paul lived and worked - the Insula di San Paolo - even when he was imprisoned.  In this area, you'll enjoy a visit to another church, built by Pope Domaso, dedicated to Paul.

The Aventine Hill - one of the seven hills of Rome - was another place where Paul lived and here you will stop at the church of Santa Prisca. Paul was familiar with Prisca, a Roman who married a Greek whom Paul knew from his days in Corinth.  The Apostle Peter is said to have baptized Prisca on the church's Doric capital.

This morning, you will also visit the Catacombs of Sebastian on the very same Appian Way that Paul walked on his way to Rome.  Years after their deaths, during the Valeriano persecutions, the bodies of St Paul and St Peter were kept here for safe-keeping. The catocombs are now surmounted by a small Basilica dedicated to San Sebastian and the his two "brothers".

After lunch you will make two more important visits, one to  the Church of St Paul Outside the Gates, a church that is said to be one of the four greatest churches in Rome (St Pauls Basilica, St John Lateran and St Mary Major being the other three).  The Basilica is built on the ground where St Paul died a martyr.  Next to it is the Abbey of the Three Fountains.

After breakfast the day begins with a tour of the Roman Colosseum where many early Christians were thrown to the lions by a bloodthirsty crowd.  The largest Roman antiquity in the world, the Colosseum will astound you.  Afterwards you'll take a leisurely walk through the ruins of the Roman Forum, the crucible of Roman life, arts, culture and politics.  Here your guide will point out numerous temples, markets, courts, and other public buildings where the Roman Empire was given its greatest expression.

Then, having dined at a local Roman trattoria, you will at last be taken to Vatican City - a state within a state - home ground of the Pope and Roman Catholicism.  Your tour here will include St Paul's Basilica, named for the Great Apostle, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Library and many other renowned sites.  Be prepared to be astounded, and perhaps, to be spiritually transported.