Rome: An Exploration of Early Christianity Jubilee 2025 Tour

Enter the organic’s side of the old town at the Aurelian Walls and visit the deep past of this place with an “organic” local host.

Walk to the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, an 18th-century building that is the official Cathedral of Rome as well as house of the Bishop of Rome.

Affectionately known as the “Mother Church of the World,” it ministers as no place in Rome is church is also one of the oldest churches in the world.

Well before papacy shifted to Vatican City here heart met in Christian Church.

Here see also from near Holy Doors opened only during a Jubilee or Holy Year which happens every 25 years.

The old Basilica still stands but it will be seen in medieval frescoes by Giotto explained concerning the iconography of the apse mosaics.

It will also be an opening into the brief early history of the Church in Rome and how these relics of Saints Peter and Paul found their way to rest here.

The former heathen temple is now the Christian basilica Ad Sanctorum, and the principal of seven basilicas, historically assigned as the first private church of the Pope.

The Holy Stairs that Jesus Christ is believed to have climbed during his torment in Pilate’s palace have been kept at this spot for years and it became the papal private chapel even before the Sistine Chapel was built; St.

Lawrence in Lucina before extending to its present complex; Lateran Baptistery, where even presently tourists gape at a wide-eyed Constantine in a mosaic of his baptism; octagonal from it came numerous baptisteries throughout Italy and then Europe, such as that of Florence.

Well, before leaving Lateran, you must have a quick look at the Lateran Obelisk – presently the tallest free-standing obelisk in the world.

Discover what and why these old Egyptian monuments were first reused by the Romans and then by the Christian Church.

We will start our pilgrimage down via Merulana, the first rake which dates back to the 16th Century made for pilgrims who flocked to Rome.

We will stop for coffee at one of Rome's celebrated bakeries, Panella, in Lateran.

Since 1929 Panella has been a favorite of Romans for good coffee and sweet pastry years! Maritozzi – filled sweet yeasted buns with fresh whipped cream.

Just irresistible for a tired pilgrim on his way home.

We will climb the Esquiline, one of Rome's highest hills, where we find the very large church Santa Maria Maggiore dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

This Basilica has a Holy Door and ancient Cosmatesque flooring with a ceiling gilded some of the earliest gold from the New World.

Here among many relics and historical mosaics, one will find a second Sistine Chapel and also the revered image of the Virgin Salus Populi Romani—an ancient icon that held off invaders against Rome in 6 AD.

End your pilgrimage at obelisk Santa Maria Maggiore an ancient treasure just steps from Rome’s main train station.