Rome: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica Tour
Description
Visit the Vatican Museums on this guided tour with skip-the-line guaranteed. Discover St. Peter's Basilica and marvel at the works of Michelangelo and Bernini. Begin your guided walking tour at the Vatican Museums, with their immense collection built by the Popes throughout the centuries, and discover one of the world's most remarkable art collections. See the Pio Clementino Hall, the Laocoon and Apollo Belvedere. Marvel at works by ancient cartographers in the Gallery of Maps and wander the Candelabra Gallery and the Gallery of Tapestries. Go inside the Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's legendary frescoes. Follow your guide inside St. Peter's Basilica, the most important Christian church in the world, which houses the Pietà, Michelangelo's incredible masterpiece, and the monumental St. Peter's Baldachin, designed by Bernini. The tour will end in the magnificent St. Peter's Square, dominated by Michelangelo's imposing Cupola and surrounded by the famous Bernini's double Colonnade.
Tour Options
Itinerary
The smallest sovereign state in the world, kingdom of Christianity and governed by the Pope.
The immense art collection built up by the Popes throughout the centuries and the Vatican Galleries.
The largest complex of the Vatican Museums, with the Belvedere Apollo and the magnificent Laocoön.
A bronze masterpiece by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, in the Pigna courtyard, that rotates over a period of time.
Frescoed with 40 giant geographical maps of the various Italian regions and of the main cities.
The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s masterpiece.
The most important Christian church in the world, which houses the Pietà, Michelangelo's incredible masterpiece, and the monumental St. Peter's Baldachin, designed by Bernini.
Dominated by Michelangelo’s imposing Cupola and surrounded by the famous Bernini’s double Colonnade.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- It is forbidden to bring metal objects, big bags and animals (assistance dogs allowed).
- It is not permitted to wear shorts, miniskirts and have uncovered shoulders.
- Tour not suitable for guests with wheelchairs or with impaired mobility.
- As per the new security provisions, an ID may be required.
- Should St. Peter’s Basilica be closed or not accessible within the scheduled time, the tour will include the Raphael's Rooms or the explanation of the Basilica from outside.
- The Raphael's Rooms are usually not included in the tour and are visited only when the Vatican makes the internal itinerary mandatory.
- The Basilica is not included on Wednesday morning due to the Papal Audience. It is included in July, August and when the audience is held indoors.
- No refunds will be issued to customers who are late and miss the tour.
Reviews(706)
On August 4th, my family and I booked tickets for St. Peter’s Basilica (Booking #33210457) and paid €116. We arrived at the meeting point just 10 minutes past the time, and there was absolutely no partner or representative waiting for us. To make matters worse, when we tried to call the local contact phone number provided on our voucher, the automated message said the number does not exist. They left us stranded in Rome with completely fake contact details. After going back and forth in a long, frustrating discussion with their customer service, they are completely refusing to issue a refund for a service they never even delivered. Taking people's money, providing non-existent contact numbers, and then hiding behind rigid policies is unacceptable behavior. Save your money, your time, and your sanity—book directly through official sites or reputable tour companies instead. Extremely disappointed!
Dear Lusine, We believe you've reviewed the wrong tour operator. We don't sell tickets to St. Peter's Basilica, because it's included in our Vatican Museums tour. Our meeting point is our office, where our staff is always present to check in our clients. All our contact information is working, and we don't have anyone with your name or booking reference on that day. We encourage you to check better before writing things that can harm other people's work. Thank you
Skip the line was great and necessary to be able to get into the museum, Chapel and basilica efficiently. Tour guide seemed a bit disengaged and was not very informative.
Guide was hard to understand. Some of the museums felt rushed. Felt we would have probably done better on our own.
It's worth to pay to join a tour to go through these 3 important sites. The tour not only includes skip the line tickets, the tour guide knows how to navigate these 3 very crowded sites. Our guide was very knowledgeable & explained things very clearly.
The tour covered everything we wanted to see, and our guide was awesome at explaining everything in detail. We learned so much. We walked away with a treasure. But be prepared to to walk up and down lots of stairs and be on your feet the whole time. But our guide walked slow for everyone and didn’t rush us, which was important because I’ve waited 30 years to see the inside of the Sistine Chapel. I felt like I was standing inside the Bible.
I booked this tour online to start at 10AM but the start time got rescheduled to 8:45AM by the tour company, which was OK because it worked for us and they communicated the change well in advance. The office is easy to find, it's right next to the Vatican. As stated in the listing, we didn't have to wait long to get into the Museum, Sistine Chapel nor St. Peter's Basilica. Why it was not a 5 star experience: the specific tour guide was OK; I felt like there was more information she could have provided about the art or history but because it was so crowded we spent alot of time rounding up our the tour group. Understandably it's because it's so crowded at the Vatican and you can easily lose your tour group. The other reason I took off a star was because at the end of the tour, rather than leaving us at the official Vatican gift shop, she took us down the street to a 3rd party gift shop and showed us specific items to buy for a "discount." This felt very sales-y and a push for commission. All this being said, I doubt our experience is unique and I'm sure many other tour groups and companies also operate this way. If you want just the highlights of the Vatican from an established company, this tour is not a bad option.
Our guide was excellent. It is always very crowded and was hot, but the tour was magnificent and we were well looked after
Olympia(probably not spelling her name right), was our tour guide and she was AMAZING! She explained the paintings and statues in such detail that we wouldn't know if we went on our own. We got time to sit in the Sistine Chapel and enjoy the moment. This was totally worth doing. I highly recommend her.
Waiting in the wait room *before* the tour was awful. Super hot. Stifling. Granted it was hot outside (about 100F?) but their lobby should have had A/C, it didn’t. I saw an A/C unit, it was either broken or they didn’t turn it on. It was miserable while waiting in their crowded lobby. So it was about 90F in the waiting room/lobby while we waited for tour to begin, and of course they were late. Then we had to march outside, uphill, in the unbearably hot weather. Once we were inside, the tour was fine and our guide did a great job, she really knew her stuff. And the audio system worked well too. So the only reason for the lack of five-star rating is their lack of A/C while waiting for tour to begin.
Stefania was an amazing tour guide. So knowledgeable and a very good communicator. She helped us navigate the crowds perfectly. It was worth every penny to have her guidance and skip the lines!
