Israel & Italy Tour with Dr. Mike & Leslee McNeff - April 2024

Today we will meet at Los Angeles International airport for our connecting flights to Istanbul via wide-body aircraft arriving the next day. Meals served on board.

Today we will arrive in Istanbul and transfer to our flight to Tel Aviv.

Upon arrival in Tel Aviv we are met by our guide who will be with us for the time we are in the Holy Land. Board our bus and travel through Tel Aviv, the largest city in Israel. We proceed to the Mediterranean to our hotel where we will check in overnight.

This morning we proceed to Caesarea, capital of the Roman procurators of Judea. Visit the Roman port, Crusader's Moat, Roman theater and aqueduct. Continue to Muhraka on Mount Carmel where Elijah challenged Baal’s priests.

This afternoon, after a Middle Eastern lunch at a Druse restaurant(optional), we proceed to Megiddo to visit the excavations that unearthed 20 different civilizations. This is Michener’s “The Source”. Continue down the road to Nazareth, boyhood home of Jesus where we will go to the look out and view the entire valley. Then, it’s on to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee for dinner and overnight at our hotel. On the way, if there is time we will stop at Harod, the spring of Gideon.

This morning our drive takes us to the northern limits of Jesus' travel as we cross the River Hatzbani to Dan. Here we combine a nature walk beside the Upper Jordan with views of the ancient ruins, topped by the Israelite high place that supported a golden calf (I Kings 12). Then a short drive to Banias (Caesarea Philippi), dedicated to Pan the Greek god of pastures, flocks and shepherds; here Peter made his great profession of faith, recognition of Christ Jesus (Matthew 16). Continue our tour with a visit to Capernaum, Tabgha. We then enjoy a relaxing boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and time permitting see the Jesus Boat at Kibbutz Ginosar.

This afternoon we will be at the River Jordan where we will have the opportunity to be baptized. We travel via the Crusader fortress of Belvoir along the Rift Valley to Bet Shean, where King Saul and his sons were pinned to the walls. It became the Decapolis Capital and was traveled by Jesus and known as Scythopolis. See the ancient theater, Circus Maximus and Cardo Maximo. We head down the Jordan River road and enter the Judean wilderness, on our way to the Dead Sea. Check into our hotel on the Dead Sea for dinner and overnight.

This morning we will have some time for a swim in the Dead Sea or a mud bath that is cleanses many skin disorders. We then drive to Masada and ascend by cable car to the magnificent ruins of the fortress where, from 70 to 73 AD, Jewish defenders made their last stand in the Judean revolt against Rome. We see the remains of storehouses, cisterns and a sixth-century Byzantine church. Continuing alongside the Dead Sea, 1300 ft. below sea level -- the lowest spot on earth -- we stop at Ein Gedi. Here we will have time to walk to the water falls that David would have used while he was fleeing from Saul.

This afternoon we proceed to Qumran and the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We travel to Jericho, the world's oldest city. Then we head up to Jerusalem where we will enter the Golden City for a panoramic view. Continue to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

"If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace." (Luke 19:42) Our drive this morning takes us past the Chapel of Ascension and Paternoster to the Mt. of Olives for an orientation view of Jerusalem and the opportunity of a group photograph overlooking Jerusalem. We then walk the traditional Passion walk. We descend to the church known as Dominus Flevit ("Our Lord weeps"). After viewing the Golden Gate, we walk downhill to Gethsemane, where we take time to meditate on the Gospel text and view the Church of All Nations. Enter the Old City and make our way to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, before we proceed to the Jerusalem Archeological Park where we see the Steps that entered the temple and the Southern Wall. It was here that Jesus would have taught the disciples. See a video that shows the temple as it was at Herod's (or Jesus') time.

"I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord". (Luke 2:10-11). This afternoon we drive south to one of the possible sites for Shepherds' Fields. We continue into Bethlehem itself, walking through the restored old town to the Church of the Nativity and visiting the manger and see the cave of St. Jerome. We drive back to Jerusalem for dinner and overnight.

This morning we will board our bus for our exciting tour to the famous Rabbi Tunnel. Here we will enter by the Western Wall Plaza and go down to the foundation of the Second Temple. We will see a model that will demonstrate where we are in location to the Temple in the time of Christ. Continue along the tunnel as we proceed to the Gateway of the Priests entry to the Holy of Holies. We will continue to the Temple Institute where we will see the making of the instruments for the new temple. We will see how they are following the Bible for exact instructions. We will see a film explaining where the Rabbi believes the Temple and courts could be located.

This afternoon we will head to Yad Vashem and see the Museum of the Holocaust. Continue to Shrine of the Book and the model city of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. We end our day with a tour of Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Return to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

“He has risen!” (Mark 16:6) After breakfast we transfer to the Dung Gate, where we ascend to the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, considered the third holiest site of Islam, located on the site of the ancient Temple Mount. Here the first and second Temples once stood. Just to the north we find the Pools of Bethesda (John 5) and St. Anne’s Church. The church is perfectly preserved from the Crusader period – with remarkable acoustics. Continuing on we see Pilate’s Judgment Hall, the Chapel of Flagellation, Lithostrotos, and the Arch of Ecce Homo (Behold the Man). We then follow the Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) through the bazaars as far as the Holy Sepulcher. From there we walk from the Christian Quarter along the Arab Souks through the Cardo Maximo and past the Armenian Quarter. Continuing on to Mount Zion we visit the Upper Room and the Tomb of King David, and then to the grounds of a church called Peter in Gallicantu, which affords the best view of early Jerusalem from the west. (Here, the Assumptions Fathers suggest, was the house where the High Priest Caiaphas interrogated Jesus). We board our bus to the Garden Tomb where we will end our day with a special visit and the possibility of having a private communion on the grounds outside the city walls. Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

We transfer to the airport for our flight home with unforgettable memories to cherish always. Knowing we have walked in the footsteps of Jesus and the early Christians on such a memorable tour will bring new meaning to our Bible reading.

This morning we transfer to the airport for our flight to Rome. Upon arrival we will be taken to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

This morning we will visit the most interesting sites which are linked with the life of the Apostle Paul in Rome, Insula di San Paolo alla Regola. Tradition has it that this is the area for Paul's first visit and house arrest in about 62AD. We visit the Church of Santa Prisca where you can still see the big Doric Capital used by Apostle Peter to baptize Prisca. Next we visit the Catacombs of San Sebastian, located on the Ancient Appian Way. This is where the bodies of Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter where kept during the Christian persecution of Valeriano ( 253 – 260 AD). There is a lot of “graffiti” in Latin and Aramaic in the catacombs and in the Basilica of San Sebastian. Continue on to the Abbey of the Three Fountains, the place of Paul’s martyrdom, where tradition has it that three different springs gushed out at each spot touched when Paul’s head fell down. Next we visit St. Paul Outside the Walls, with the adjoining Basilica where the bones of Paul have recently been found. Return to hotel for dinner and overnight

This morning you have a walking tour through the real core of Ancient Rome. See the great “power” of Rome and Emperors who demanded divinity for themselves. This was mainly what Paul preached against in Romans 1, 25 …. And worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. See the Trajan's Column, jewel of architecture and sculpture made by Apollodorus of Damascus, go along the Via dei Fori Imperiali (street of the Imperial For a), the ruins of the fori that the great emperors built as lasting memory of their power. See the Forum of Trajan, the biggest and most splendid of all, and then reach the Capitoline Hill, once political and religious center of the town, which today is the seat of the Municipality. Go to the Piazza del Campidoglio, the magnificent result of a single project by Michelangelo, the statue of Marcus Aurelius. Continue to the Roman Forum its important buildings, the Curia, seat of the Roman Senate, the State Archive, the basilicas, palaces of justice, the temple of Vesta, and the House of the Vestals, the virgins in charge of keeping the sacred fire always alive, and all around temples and columns and arches of triumph erected to commemorate gods of Roman history. Romans 1, 23…and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man…

Visit the fabulous origins of Rome: the Palatine. Here Romolus founded the town in the year 753 B.C. and starting with Augustus the great emperors settled here, admire the Domus Tiberiana only partially explored and the ruins of the Imperial Palaces. We will find 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”). We will end our day at the Colosseum everlasting symbol of the greatness of Rome and the stage for the historical fights of the gladiators.

We transfer to the airport for our flight home with unforgettable memories to cherish always. Knowing we have walked in the footsteps of the early Christians on such a memorable tour will bring new meaning to our Bible reading.