The Scavi: The famous excavations of Saint Peter's Basilica: Registration Closed!

Enjoy a high-quality virtual visit to the treasures of the Vatican.  Rather than traveling thousands of miles, across seas and oceans only to walk thousands of steps to visit the high-traffic areas of the Vatican, now you can make that journey from the comfort of your home!  NO lines :)

Staying safe and staying home, you will enjoy a decade's worth of insights gleaned from leading pilgrims and patrons through the beauitful & compelling drama of sacred beauty. It is also a perfect opportunity to get some real *insider* information with a small group of online friends.

The theme of this virtual visit will focus on St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. Making use of the virtual tour online, we will explore the history, theology, philosophy, art and architecture of this sacred space.  This visit will serve as a comprehensive overview of the breathtaking basilica. In this particular visit, we are going to explore the origins of St. Peter's Basilica via the Scavi tour.  Famously hard to book, now you can be guaranteed a spot and a visit from the comfort of your home! And did you know that June 29th is the Feast of Saint Peter the Apostle? It is the most important celebration at the Basilica, and it has been for over 2,000 years!

Finally, to keep things interesting, we are pairing our virtual visit with authentic Roman wine. We have selected wines that accompany the insights into the lessons of theology & philosophy we will explore on our visit.  Wines will be selected to evoque the origins of this sacred space.  How can we make the old, and original, new again? And explode in a fresh way on your palette?  Uniting memory of a place to memory of a taste, we want to leave you with a lasting experience of the culture of timelessness. And after all, Catholics feast and then they FEAST.  What woudl any festa be without buon vino (good wine)?

At the end of our virtual visit and wine tasting, our small group participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of both the scholar and the winemaker. Also, following your visit, you will receive a set of 'class notes' that help you to relieve the experience over future glasses of wine, and/or in anticipation of future in-person visits!!

This is not a boring Zoom; this is a highly-interactive and highly-produced virtual cultural experience.

All the virtual walks will take place online, of course.  To participate you will need a computer with a good (fast) internet connection, and Zoom downloaded onto your computer or device. We recommend  that you have WhatsApp installed and working, but this is not necessary. 

Once you register, all the log-in details, instructions, and directions will be sent to you via email. For making the most of the wine tasting, guests will receive an offer of purchasing our boutique impossible-to-get-outside-of-Italy wine, and have it shipped to their homes. We will also share with you tips for selecting your own wine at your local enoteca or Total Wine, if that is your preference. It is important to note that the wine element is only optional; you will still get so much out of this journey together even if you don't sip vino along the way ;) We can all celebrate a fun "heaven-birthday-party" for St. Peter online :)

As a courtesy, if you plan to no longer participate in the virtual tour, we ask you to please provide us with a cancellation notice at least 24 hours before the event. We cannot guarantee refunds for cancellations made with less than 24 hours' notice, though we will endeavor to do our best !