Upon arrival, we meet our tour escort. We will then board our bus and then make the drive to Naples. We will do a brief walking orientation tour of Naples and then check into our hotel. The group will have free time the rest of the afternoon to stroll through Naples. Dinner NOT included. Overnight in Naples.

After breakfast we begin our journey with a visit Herculaneum, the smaller, quieter and better preserved of the two cities buried by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79AD to get a sense of the physical world that early Christians knew in Roman Italy. Then we return to Naples for a tour of the Naples Museum where many of the most interesting artifacts from Herculaneum and Pompeii are housed. Dinner and overnight in Rome.

Our first stop this morning is the Vatican Museum. From here, our next visit is to the Basilica of St. Peter, the largest church in the world, which overlooks the enormous Piazza San Pietro. After a break for lunch (not included), we tour the eternal city. Driving through the main streets of Rome, we will marvel at the monuments of this great capital stopping at St. John Lateran, Check into hotel for dinner and overnight.

After an early breakfast we make our way back to Rome. Today, we enjoy a sightseeing tour, including a special visit to the Catacombs where we explore tunnels and see the carvings on the walls from early Christians. From here we continue to St. Peter in Chains. Then we visit the Colosseum, which symbolizes the eternity of the Roman civilization, the Forum, and the Parthenon, an ancient temple converted into a church. After lunch (not included), and the “Sacred Steps.” As a monk, Martin Luther climbed these steps on his knees, trying to merit forgiveness. Afterwards, we visit St. Paul’s Church where tradition believes the Apostle Paul is buried. followed by dinner and overnight in Rome.

After breakfast we transfer to the airport for our flight to Frankfurt, Germany. After we receive our luggage will then begin our drive to Erfurt. We end our day with dinner and then check into our hotel in Erfurt for overnight.

This morning we enjoy breakfast and then we drive to the magnificent Wartburg Castle for a self-guided tour of the Palais (Great Hall), the Elisabeth Hallway, and the Luther Room where Luther, under his disguise as “Junker Jörg,” translated the New Testament into German. After our tour we board the motorcoach and make our way back to Erfurt, When we arrive we will have lunch before a guided visit of the Augustinian Monastery, with a permanent exhibit depicting Luther’s life as a monk. If time permits, we will visit St. Mary’s Cathedral, where Luther was ordained as a priest, and St. Severus Church.

After breakfast, we drive to Eisleben and tour the house where Luther was born in 1483 and the house where he died in 1546. We then continue to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul where Luther was baptized. Afterwards, we go to St. Andrew’s Church, where Luther preached his last four sermons and where his body was laid in state. We now enjoy a scenic drive to visit the majestic city of Leipzig. We visit St. Nicholas Church, the home of the faithful “Pray for Peace” Christians and the powerful force that transformed Germany’s East and West. We visit the magnificent St. Thomas Church where Luther preached and Johann Sebastian Bach performed and directed the famous St. Thomas Boys Choir. It was here that Schiller wrote his immortal “Ode to Joy,” later to be adopted as the principal theme of “Beethoven’s 9th Symphony” (which was also written in Leipzig). Dinner and overnight are in Leipzig.

After our bountiful German breakfast, we have a short drive through the German countryside to Wittenberg, which was the main workplace of Martin Luther from 1508. We visit Luther Hall, the Augustinian monastery where Luther lived as a monk and later, in 1525, as owner with his wife and family (Luther Hall is the largest museum of Reformation history in the world), the Market Square and Town Hall; tour All Saints Church (Schlosskirche), famous site where Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Castle Church door sparking the beginning of the Reformation (it is here that Luther is buried alongside his fellow reformer, Philipp Melanchthon); St. Mary’s Church, where Luther did the majority of his preaching. Overnight in Wittenberg.

After breakfast we depart Wittenberg and make our way to Berlin, Our sightseeing tour includes the city-center with the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Nicolai quarter, the boulevard Unter den Linden, Checkpoint Charlie, Charlottenburg Castle, Reichstag (from outside), and Brandenburg Gate. This afternoon is at leisure to visit one of the many museums on Museum Island, such as the Neues Museum where one can find among many other archaeological treasures the world-renowned bust of Nefertiti. We check into our hotel to get ready for our farewell dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight in Berlin.

We transfer to Berlin airport for our departure back to the U.S.A. and arrive home today with a greater understanding of Martin Luther and the early Christian Church, and full of wonderful memories of the incredible once-in-a-lifetime tour to Germany.