The Vatican Museums & the Sistine Chapel with a Private Guide

Booking this tour will give you the chance to see the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel at their best, led by an official, expert guide who will describe, exclusively for you, the most important works in the Vatican Museums, guiding you on an excellent route.
The route can be customized to the wishes and needs of visitors, adapting it to requests, such as for families with children, visitors with particular interests, or those with difficulties walking long distances. Your guide will handle all entry procedures. Tour includes skip-the-line ticket.
Booking steps
Choose the date and entry time.
You will immediately receive an email with a copy of your order. Your ticket will be emailed to you later. If you order after 6:00 pm, you will need to wait until the following morning to receive your or our email informing you when you will receive the voucher. You will find all useful information to meet your guide on the voucher.

From booking to 4 working days before the tour date, the cancellation fee is 30% of the total price of the tour.
For cancellations communicated to Italy Travels 3 or fewer working days prior to the day of the tour, the cancellation penalty applied is the full amount of the tour (100% of the total price), i.e. there is no right to any refund.
This cancellation policy will be applied proportionally for partial cancellations for groups based on the number of participants in a tour.
If you need to make changes to an already confirmed booking, please contact our offices by email a tinfo@ticketsrome.com or by phone +39 0552670402.
Requests of changes must always be communicated in writing by email. Visitors must always print out the modified voucher and show the print-out at the ticket office on the day of the tour.

Backpacks, suitcases, or large bags may not be brought in the sites.
The ticket allows you to access to museums only once.
You must go through security checks at the metal detectors. The wait for these mandatory procedures cannot be avoided.
Do not forget to bring a valid identification card or valid passport (one per person).
Italy Travels cannot be held responsible for partial closing museum rooms, itinerary variations inside the museum, cancellations or entrance delays due to unexpected events, strikes or decisions taken by the museum direction or unexpected variations of the Pope movements which involve the museum buildings.

Italy Travels tour guides staff is represented by licensed guides of great experience and high level of professionalism, competence and excellence on their job. All Italy Travels guides are authorized by the provincial administration of Rome and most of them are art historians and teachers in art subjects.
All guided tours organized by Italy Travels always include pre-reserved museum tickets when museum tours are included in the tour itinerary. In this way visitors avoid waisting time waiting in line in front of museums ticket offices.

The Vatican tour itinerary can be personalized according to any visitors’ special request.The standard schedule includes all most important museum sections.
THE VATICAN TOUR ITINERARY
This tour starts in the Cortile della Pigna, also called the Courtyard of the Pinecone, which gets its name from the enormous bronze Pinecone dated back to Roman period. The Pinecone originally decorated a fountain in the Roman baths of Agrippa. Always in this court yard, visitors can admire a pair of bronze Roman peacocks from Hadrian’s mausoleum which stand on either side of the Pinecone. While in the Courtyard of the Pinecone, the guide will focus his explanation on the main architectural elements of the Vatican Palaces located all around the courtyard and talk about the buildings history.
The next step is at the Belvedere Courtyard represents a very important portion of the Vatican Museums Greco-Roman section housing famous antiquities such as the Laocoon statue and the Apollo Belvedere. The Laocoon depicts an ancient Greek story of a Trojan priest and his two sons, killed by sea serpents during the Trojan war. This sculpture was especially popular in the Renaissance as many great artists studied its anatomy. The Apollo Belvedere represents the Greek god Apollo, this statue has been considered the greatest sculpture of ancient classic times.

In the Room of the Muses some other important sculptures are displayed; in particular the guide will drive the visitors’ attention to the Torso del Belvedere - a celebrated fragment of an ancient Greek statue by Apollonius. Actually, this sculpture is especially famous because Michelangelo studied it for its accurate anatomy. The influence this sculpture had on Michelangelo can be clearly recognized in Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel. The likeness to the Christ is very evident especially in the construction of the anatomical twisting of his body.
The following tour step is the Round Room where visitors can admire the Bust of Zeus, the golden statue of Hercules, Hadrian’s statue, and the enormous porphyry tub that was originally in Nero’s Golden House. The size of this tub gives visitors an idea of how the famously indulgent Roman ruler lived.
The tour continues in the Greek Cross Room where two porphyry sarcophagi belonging to Saint Constance and to Saint Helen, the daughter and mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who legalized Christianity are displayed.
THE UPPER FLOOR GALLERIES
Then the guide will lead you to the upper floor to visit the Candelabra Gallery completely decorated by tundre of amazing marble candelabra originally located in Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. In this gallery there are also remarkable Roman copies of ancient Greek statues.
The following gallery is the so-called Gallery of Tapestries with its enormous antique tapestries commissioned in the 16th century by Pope Clement VII to decorate the Sistine Chapel. Next step is the fascinating Gallery of Maps, while walking along this gallery, visitors can admire the gorgeous Vatican gardens from the gallery windows.
RAPHAEL ROOMS
After some minor rooms, you will reach the Raphael Rooms, originally the Papal residence, these rooms are covered almost entirely by frescoes painted by the Renaissance master, Raphael and partially by his students.
Room of the Segnatura – which originally was Pope’s the personal library and office and was the first the Raphael painted. Among the frescoes which decorate this room, there is the worldwide famous School of Athens. Then visitors will admire the frescoes of the
Room of Helidorus, the most famous scene depicted in this room is The Deliverance of Saint Peter from Prison. The story is depicted in 3 episodes, and Raphael ingeniously incorporated the window grate into the story. Then the Room of the Fire in the Borgo – and the Hall of Constantine follow.
THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The tour last stop is in the Sistine Chapel. Because no talking is allowed in the chapel, the guide will talk about the crape decorations before entering the crape with the help of illustrated panels.
The chapel was decorated by world-renowned artists: Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Michelangelo.
The chapel Ceiling were commissioned by Pope Julius II to Michelangelo who painted them from 1508-1512. The painted area covers 930 square meters and contains over 300 figures, among them the Creation of Adam scene. The ceiling perimeter is painted with the Biblical figures of the Prophets and the Sibyls.
Entrance wall is adorned by Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, depicting the Apocalypse as told in the book of Revelation. According to the Bible, Christ will return to judge all souls – the souls of the dead will rise from their graves to be judged if they are to go to heaven or hell.