Your Host
Fr. Michael Rother
Fr. Michael Rother is accompanying this pilgrimage to help lead the group in prayer, fellowship, and thoughtful engagement with each traveler.
★ Hosted by Fr. Michael Rother
Catholic Pilgrimage · 12 Days · Italy
Pilgrimage to Italy feat. the Sordevolo Passion Play with Fr. Michael Rother
Join Fr. Michael Rother and Ceci Triska on a pilgrimage through Italy featuring the Sordevolo Passion Play. This trip will visit Milan, Biella, Sordevolo, Padua, Venice, Assisi, Rome and more!
The Pilgrimage
Walk in the Footsteps of Faith
View profile
Know Before You Go
What's included
✓ Included
- ✓Round-trip coach-class group airfare from Houston to Milan and returning from Rome to Houston
- ✓Airport taxes and fuel surcharges (subject to change until ticketing)
- ✓First-class hotel accommodations for 10 nights
- ✓Daily buffet breakfast at the hotel
- ✓4 lunches
- ✓7 dinners at the hotel (beverages not included; available for purchase)
- ✓Welcome dinner with wine
- ✓Farewell dinner at a local restaurant, including half a bottle of wine per person
- ✓English-speaking Christian Tour Manager
- ✓All transfers via private, air-conditioned motor coach as per itinerary
- ✓All visits and entrance fees as per the itinerary
- ✓Passion Play tickets
- ✓Baggage handling at hotels
- ✓Daily private Mass and spiritual program (confirmed)
- ✓Stella Pelegrina Pilgrim Formation Course
- ✓Whisper sets
- ✓Select International Tours travel portfolio
× Not included
- ×Personal expenses incurred during the trip
- ×Trip Protection & Medical Insurance (strongly recommended; see Travel Protection section)
- ×Tipping/gratuities for guides, drivers, and wait staff
- ×Beverages at meals (unless noted above)
- ×Church donations: approximately $3–$5 per person, per Mass
- ×Airport transfers for land-only passengers
- ×Airline seat assignments and flight pre-check-in fees
- ×Government-imposed destination charges
- ×Country-specific visa fees (unless noted in inclusions)
- ×Electronic Travel Authorization fees (ETIAS) if applicable
- ×Airline baggage charges
- ×Baggage handling at the airports and hotels is limited to one suitcase per person.
- ×Any charges incurred due to excessive luggage, including the cost of an additional baggage vehicle or porterage charges.
See the official trip information for gratuities, shipping and handling, payment fees, and any optional-extension charges.
Day by Day
Your pilgrimage, mapped out
Tap any day to explore. Meals: B breakfast · L lunch · D dinner.
Day 1September 10, 2027
DEPART USA – MILAN
+
We depart Houston on an overnight flight to Milan, gateway to northern Italy and the beginning of an extraordinary pilgrimage journey. Dinner and breakfast will be served on board. Quotes for optional Premium Economy and Business Class upgrades are available upon request and will be provided starting 120 days before departure. As we work with group rates, we are unable to request specific seats with the airlines. If you wish to select your seat on the flight, please book your own airfare and reserve the land package with us.
Day 2September 11, 2027
WELCOME TO ITALY – MILAN
+
We land at Milan’s Malpensa Airport and are welcomed by our Select International Tour Manager, who will accompany us for the entire journey. We make our way to the magnificent Duomo di Milano, one of the largest and most breathtaking Gothic cathedrals in the world. Here we venerate the relics of St. Charles Borromeo, the great reforming Archbishop of Milan whose example of holiness transformed the post-Tridentine Church. The Duomo also houses a remarkable relic: a nail believed to be from the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Originally sent by St. Helena to her son Constantine, the nail was later obtained by St. Ambrose at the end of the fourth century and is today raised and lowered on a unique engineered platform once a year for veneration. We celebrate Mass in this sacred space, offering our pilgrimage to God as we begin. This evening we gather for a festive welcome dinner with wine, a beautiful first opportunity to meet our fellow pilgrims and set the tone for the days ahead. Overnight in Milan. Meals: Welcome Dinner with Wine
D
Day 3September 12, 2027
SACRED MOUNTAINS – SORDEVOLO PASSION PLAY
+
This morning we travel into the Sacred Mountains of Piedmont, a UNES- CO World Heritage landscape of sanctuaries, chapels, and natural beauty, to visit the ancient Monastery of Oropa, one of the most beloved Marian shrines in northern Italy. We celebrate Mass here and take in the serenity of this mountain sanctuary. Following lunch at the monastery’s restaurant, we make a brief and deeply personal stop in the mountain village of Pollone, where the family of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati spent their summers. The young Torinese layman who became a symbol of joyful, active faith hiked these very mountains regularly, and we visit the church where he was baptized and the places that shaped his spiritual life. In the afternoon, we descend to the small village of Sordevolo. Tonight we take our seats in the open-air theater for the Sordevolo Passion Play, performed by the villagers of Sordevolo and the surrounding communities since 1850. In the tradition of the great Passion Play of Oberammergau, the entire town pours itself into this sacred drama, over 400 local participants bringing to life the final hours of Christ’s earthly life with extraordinary devotion and artistry. The play is performed in Italian and runs approximately 90 min-
Day 4September 13, 2027
BIELLA – PADUA
+
This morning we depart the foothills of Piedmont and travel southeast toward Padua, one of the oldest and most sacred pilgrimage cities in Italy. We arrive mid-afternoon for a vist of the magnificent Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua, one of the eight papal basilicas in the world and home to the relics of the beloved Franciscan friar and Doctor of the Church. St. Anthony, known affectionately as ‘Il Santo’ by the Paduans, drew pilgrims during his lifetime by the tens of thousands, and his shrine continues to be one of the most visited in all of Christendom. We tour the Basilica and celebrate Mass, placing our intentions before this great intercessor. Dinner and overnight in Padua. Meals: B, D
BD
Day 5September 14, 2027
PADUA – VENICE
+
This morning we board our private coach for the short journey to Venice, La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic, one of the most singular and beautiful cities ever built. Arriving at the waterfront, we step aboard a vaporetto for a scenic cruise along the Grand Canal, gliding past palaces, churches, and centuries of Venetian splendor. We make our way on foot through the labyrinthine calli, Venice’s characteristic narrow lanes, to the heart of the city. We celebrate Mass at the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, the great domed Baroque basilica that rises at the entrance to the Grand Canal, built in thanksgiving after Venice was delivered from the plague of 1630. We then visit the Basilica of Saint Mark, one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture in the Western world, whose golden mosaics, ancient relics, and sacred atmosphere have drawn pilgrims and faithful for over a thousand years. For those who wish to explore further, Venice rewards the curious at every turn, the Basilica dei Frari with its extraordinary Titian altarpiece, the Scuola di San Rocco with its breathtaking cycle of Tintoretto paintings, and the Church of San Zaccaria, where Venetian masters painted at their very finest. We cross the famous Rialto Bridge, wander at leisure, and sample Venice’s beloved cicchetti, small bites paired with a glass of local wine, before returning to Padua in the early evening. Dinner and overnight in Padua. Meals: B, D
BD
Day 6September 15, 2027
PADUA – BOLOGNA – ASSISI
+
Following breakfast and the hotel check-out, we visit the Scrovegni Chapel, a small private chapel whose interior walls are covered entirely by the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone, painted between 1303 and 1305 and widely considered among the greatest masterworks of Western art. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the chapel’s luminous blue vault and scenes from the lives of Joachim, Anne, Mary, and Christ are a profound meditation in paint. Departing Padua this morning we travel south, making a stop in Bologna, the ancient city of towers, arcades, and one of Europe’s oldest universities. Here we visit the magnificent Basilica of San Domenico, the mother church of the Dominican Order and the burial place of its founder. The Shrine of St. Dominic de Guzman is among the most beautiful in Italy, a Renaissance masterwork housing the incorrupt remains of the beloved Spanish friar who gave the Church the Rosary and founded the Order of Preachers. We celebrate Mass here and venerate the relics of this great saint. Continuing south, we arrive in the hill town of Assisi, perhaps the most spiritually charged landscape in Italy, and make our first stop at the vast Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, built over the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel where St. Francis of Assisi began his fraternity and gathered his first brothers. This humble stone oratory, now enclosed within a magnificent seventeenth-century basilica, remains the heart of the Franciscan world: it was here that St. Francis died in 1226, and it is here that the Order was born. We continue to our hotel for dinner and overnight. Meals: B, D
BD
Day 7September 16, 2027
ASSISI – FULL PILGRIMAGE DAY
+
We give this full and unhurried day to the graces of Assisi, one of the most spiritually alive places on earth. The morning begins with a visit to the Basilica of Saint Clare, where the body of St. Clare, Francis’s most faithful follower and the foundress of the Poor Clares, lies in a glass reliquary. We also visit the nearby Chapel of San Damiano, where the Byzantine crucifix spoke to the young Francis and commanded him to ‘rebuild my church,’ and where St. Clare and her sisters lived in poverty and prayer for over forty years. We visit the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore to see the recently established tomb of St. Carlo Acutis. We then proceed to the Papal Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, where we celebrate Mass and descend to the crypt to pray at the tomb of the Poverello himself, the saint who renewed the Church in the thirteenth century by living the Gospel without compromise. We return to our hotel for dinner and overnight in Assisi. Meals: B, D
BD
Day 8September 17, 2027
ASSISI – ORVIETO – ROME
+
We depart Assisi this morning and travel toward Rome, making a stop at Orvieto, one of the most dramatically situated hilltop towns in all of Italy. Orvieto’s magnificent striped Gothic cathedral is home to one of the most extraordinary sacred treasures in Christendom: the Corporal of the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena. We celebrate Mass in this extraordinary setting. Following our visit to the cathedral and the hilltop town, we are welcomed to a beautiful local winery in the Umbrian countryside for a guided wine tasting and a leisurely lunch, a relaxed and festive interlude in the heart of Italy’s wine country before we continue to Rome. We arrive in the Eternal City in the afternoon, settle into our hotel, and gather for dinner. Overnight in Rome. Meals: B, Special Lunch with Wine Tasting, D
BLD
Day 9September 18, 2027
VATICAN TREASURES – ST. PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS
+
We dedicate this full day to the heart of Catholic Rome, beginning at the Vatican, the center of the universal Church. We visit Saint Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world, built over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. We descend to the Vatican Grottos to pray at the tomb of St. Peter himself, and marvel at the grandeur of Michelangelo’s dome, Bernini’s baldachin, and the countless works of art and devotion that fill every corner of this sacred space. We then enter the Vatican Museums for a guided visit, culminating in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo’s ceiling and his Last Judgment together form one of the greatest artistic and spiritual achievements in human history. We also tour the Scavi tunnels underneath the Basilica (TBC). Following lunch we drive to visit St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica, where we celebrate Mass. Overnight in Rome. Meals: B, L D
BLD
Day 10September 19, 2027
ROME; PAPAL ANGELUS; GREAT CATHEDRALS OF ROME
+
This morning we rise early and make our way to St. Peter’s Square, where we gather with the faithful from around the world to receive the blessing of the Holy Father during the Sunday Angelus. There are few experiences in a pilgrim’s life quite like standing in that great oval embrace of Bernini’s colonnade, hearing the voice of the Pope and praying the Angelus together with thousands of faithful from every nation. Following lunch, we visit the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, one of Rome’s four great papal basilicas, where we celebrate Mass. Built in the fifth century and housing the most venerated icon of Our Lady in Rome, the Salus Populi Romani, Santa Maria Maggiore is a place of extraordinary Marian beauty and history. We then visit the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome and the oldest basilica in the Christian world, and climb the Holy Stairs. Dinner is at leisure tonight. Overnight in Rome. Meals: B, L
BL
Day 11September 20, 2027
ROME – AT LEISURE; FAREWELL DINNER
+
Our final full day in Rome is yours to spend as you choose. Rome rewards those who wander, whether you return to a favorite basilica, seek out a church you haven’t yet visited, browse the markets, or simply sit in a piazza with an espresso and let the city settle into your memory. For those who wish to explore further, our Tour Manager will be happy to suggest itineraries. This evening, we gather one final time for a special farewell dinner at a fine local restaurant with wine. We raise a glass to the journey we have shared: from the Duomo of Milan to the Sacred Mountains of Piedmont, from the Passion Play of Sordevolo to the shrines of Padua and Venice, from the holy ground of Assisi to the Eternal City of Rome. Overnight in Rome. Meals: B, Special Farewell Dinner with Wine
BD
Day 12September 21, 2027
ROME; DEPART FOR USA
+
After breakfast, we bid farewell to Rome and transfer to the airport for our return flight to Houston. We depart Italy carrying memories that will last a lifetime, the incandescent mosaics of Venice, the peace of Assisi at dawn, the thunder of the Sordevolo Passion Play, and the unbroken sense of the sacred that has marked every day of this pilgrimage. Arrivederci, Italia. Meals: B
B
Pricing
Choose how you travel
Most popular
Base Price
$4,495per person
Base Price. Main trip package.
Base Price and Group Air from Houston
$5,995per person
Base Price and Group Air from Houston. Main trip package.
Solo Room (Additional Charge)
$1,295additional
Solo Room (Additional Charge). Additional supplement.
ETA Required
Confirm requirements with Select for this destination.
Deposit
A deposit of $750.00 per person should accompany your registration by May 28, 2027.Final Payment
Final payment is due by June 10, 2027.Passport Validity
Your passport must be valid through March 21, 2028.Pilgrimage Information
Everything else for this trip
Travel Protection
Protect your investment against cancellation, illness and disruption.
Learn more →Terms & Conditions
Deposit, payment, cancellation and responsibility terms for this trip.
Learn more →Visas & Entry
Passport, visa and destination entry requirements.
Learn more →Know Before You Go
Packing, weather, electrical and on-the-ground practicalities.
Learn more →Two-Minute Travel Tips
Short, practical videos to help you make the most of your pilgrimage.
Learn more →FAQ
Registration, payments, lodging, walking, mobility and more.
Learn more →Ready to Begin Your Pilgrimage?
Review the trip details and registration information, then reserve your place.
