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Making Rome your home for the holidays? Then celebrate—like the locals do. Enjoy a fun, festive exploration of Italy’s best and most authentic Christmas traditions… including its food!

We gather together at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a magnificent church that just happens to be one of the four papal basilicas of Rome. (You might already know it as “Saint Mary Major”). Discover the miracle of the basilica’s 4th-century founding (hint: it has to do with snow… in August!) and admire the sparkling mosaics. In the church’s charming museum, visit its famous nativity, the oldest crèche in the world made with full-sized statues. Delve into the tradition of the crèche—which dates back to St. Francis of Assisi!—and learn how this artistic tradition is becoming more vulnerable today.

All bundled up, we stroll through Monti, an enchanting and authentic quarter of Rome that’s been inhabited since ancient times. If you’ve dreamed of spending the holidays wandering through medieval roads and past tiny piazzas, this is your chance! Shake off the chill at a traditional Italian gourmet food shop, where we’ll get to taste pandoro, one of Italy’s most traditional Christmas sweets. Your guide will give you the inside scoop on all of the other culinary traditions of an Italian Christmas, from fish on Christmas Eve to torrone (and maybe even give you some recipes!).

Leaving Monti, you’ll approach the ancient forum. It’s not so unrelated to Christmas—in fact, many Christmas traditions have ancient Roman roots! We’ll go right into one of the more interesting examples of how modern, Christian Rome “reused” the pagan past: The Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano originally was built as a pagan temple, but rededicated to the saints in the 6th century as a church!

Around the corner, the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli is one of the churches most closely tied to Christmas traditions in Rome. That’s largely because of its statue of the baby Jesus, which was carved in the 15th century out of wood from the garden of Gethsemane. Every Christmas Eve, it’s brought out to a throne in front of the altar. Your guide will let you in on the secret, though, as to why this statue isn’t the same one that was worshiped throughout the Renaissance!

Heading past the beautiful Christmas tree at Piazza Venezia—the city’s main tree, and definitely the biggest!—we’ll wind through medieval streets, lit up with Christmas lights and locals doing their holiday shopping, to wind up at Piazza Navona. This is the site of Rome’s annual Christmas market, a festival of stalls selling toys, Christmas ornaments, sweets, and other goods. Learn about Italian holiday decorations… and about vin brulè, mulled Christmas wine.

Through it all, unwind from the stress of travel and the holidays—it’s easy to do with a fun, entertaining guide, a maximum group size of only 12, and a focus on the off-the-beaten-path sites. After all, what better time to relax, and enjoy, than the holidays?