The ninth season opens with Prince Lorenzo Borghese, a 34-year-old Italian aristocrat who has lived in the U.S. since he was 5, meeting the 27 women he'll consider to be his bride. Two of them are Italian crashers at the opening party, held at a castle that was built in 1604, and they're not greeted warmly by the American invitees, who aren't especially nice to each other, either. By the end of the show, 15 ladies get the boot.

The 12 remaining bachelorettes move into a villa, and before three rose-less ladies move out at the end of the episode, Lorenzo squires one, Lisa, around Rome's Villa Borghese. This doesn't make Lisa popular with some of her competitors. Group dates include a motor-scooter tour of Rome and a Mediterranean cruise, where one bachelorette passes out after drinking too much. There's also an emotional breakdown, suffered by Erica. And back at Lorenzo's villa, two bachelorettes break into his bedroom.

Nine bachelorettes remain, and Lorenzo takes six of them to a Tuscan castle for a sleepover pool party. And he spends a night at the opera on a one-on-one date. It's a Cinderella evening for Jami that begins in a Maserati, but it could end (figuratively speaking) in a pumpkin. Meanwhile, Sadie tells Lorenzo she's saving herself for marriage, and fireworks literally cap another bachelorette's date with him. At the rose ceremony, Lorenzo has six to bestow.

Six ladies remain, and two receive one-on-one dates after winning a "truth exercise" devised by the previously eliminated Erica. One woman is treated to a carriage ride that includes stops at the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican. And the other gets a plane ride (Lorenzo's the pilot) to ancient baths for pampering and romance. Speaking of ancient Rome, four bachelorettes race chariots. And in other athletic activities, Desiree and Lisa do some skinny-dipping. At the end, Lorenzo bestows four roses.

Lorenzo visits the hometowns of the four remaining bachelorettes. In Miami, Jennifer's father unsettles Lorenzo with his gun collection. In Portland, Ore., a friend of Lisa's scares him with a wedding dress. And in Venice, he and Agnese's parents simply don't speak the same language. But at least there's a pleasant beach interlude with Sadie in San Diego. At the rose ceremony, the field is reduced to three, all of whom will go on overnight dates with Lorenzo.

Sweden, Budapest and Sicily are the locales for Lorenzo's dates with Jennifer, Lisa and Sadie, two of whom receive roses. In a Swedish ice bar, Jennifer tells Lorenzo that she'll move to New York to be with him. In Sicily, Sadie's approach is more hands-on: She massages him during a day of skin diving and a night of romance that tests her commitment to save herself for marriage. But in Budapest, Lorenzo has a sharp question for Lisa: Is she there for him or does she have an agenda of her own?

Ten rejected bachelorettes from the Rome cast are reunited to dish the dirt and throw some questions at Lorenzo.

Lorenzo has one rose left to bestow, but first he has intimate dates with finalists Sadie and Jennifer, and he asks permission from both of their fathers if he may marry their daughters. Their mothers and Lorenzo's parents have arrived in Rome as well, and everyone must endure an awkward cocktail party together. Meanwhile, Lorenzo's mother has designed the engagement ring he will give to the woman he chooses.