St. Peters Basilica Vatican
Girl looking at the Sistine Chapel
gates inside the vatican museums
Tourists with their guide inside St Peter Basilica
Reserved Access

Semi-Private Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums & St. Peter's Basilica Tour

4.93
(1,810 Reviews)
3h
English
10
Mon to Sat
08:30, 10:30 & 11:00

A Semi-Private guided tour with a group of 10 is the ideal way to explore the Vatican Museums. Your art historian guide will bring you through the small state to take in the treasures inside.

  • Our Reserved Access gets you First Access into the Vatican before everyone else.
  • Your expert Vatican guide will inspire you with the hidden stories behind the art of the Sistine Chapel and the Museums.
  • Follow your guide from the Sistine Chapel directly into the Basilica and the Pietá with Skip-the-Line access.
  • Enjoy an intimate experience with a small group of only 10 or fewer.

Skip-the-Line on Your Intimate Semi-Private Vatican Tour

What's Included

  • Reserved Access to the Vatican Museums

  • Skip-the-Line Access to St. Peter’s Basilica
  • Groups of 10 people or less

  • English speaking cultural guide

  • All tickets and reservation fees

  • Gratuities

Sites Visited

  • Vatican Museums
  • Sistine Chapel
  • Gallery of Maps
  • Gallery of Tapestries
  • St. Peter's Basilica
  • St. Peter's Square

Reserved Access to the Museums

Bypass the lines through our Reserved Access to the Museums on our Semi-Private Tour of the Vatican Museums and share the quality of the papal art collection on an engaging tour of the Vatican highpoints with an expert cultural guide.

No One Gives You More Access

Our tour really starts when you see the giant dome of St Peters Basilica rising over the gardens in the center of the Vatican.  Among the rooftops of this small state, you'll just be able to make out the rather plain looking exterior of the Sistine Chapel. To get there you'll enter the Pinecone Courtyard where the Popes used to welcome visiting dignitaries.  Today it acts as a sort of holding area for groups about to enter the Museum halls. Between the statues from Egypt and the unusual modern sculptures, you will learn about Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel is a place of worship and there is no guiding allowed inside so this is where you will discover what to look out for.

The path to the Chapel will take you through rooms full of maps and statues, marble floors, exquisite ceilings and walls lined with hanging tapestries and glittering frescoes. Your guide will keep you enthralled with stories of the artists, their techniques and their relationship with the popes as you make your way towards the chapel. Once inside you will have time to examine all the finer points of the artwork inside and discover the genius behind Michelangelo's radical techniques which are considered the apex of the Renaissance style.

No One Gets You in Faster

When you leave the Sistine Chapel on our tour you do not have to line up again with others to enter St. Peter's Basilica. You can go straight through the doors to stare up at the enormous dome inside. You'll get to view Michelangelo's sublime Pieta, Bernini's twisted bronze canopy and the resting places of the popes. Afterward, say arrivederci to the Swiss Guards and head out into St. Peters Square which was designed by Bernini to be strangely circular.

Over the course of 3 hours, our guides will uncover the stories of the Vatican Museums and its exquisite architecture on a tour designed to be as engaging as possible in a location which attracts so many people every day. From the heavenly Basilica to the bible stories coming to life on the frescoes, you'll discover how the Popes used art to carry their news in the centuries before bibles were printed.  

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Get to Know Dark Rome

Guide showing attraction

A Dark Rome tour is the product of meticulous research, detailed planning, and a passion for providing customers with travel experiences they will cherish forever.

With Dark Rome it's not just facts, our passionate guides tell you the stories that bring the sights to life.

  • All of our guides are experts in their field
  • We only hire fluent English-speakers so nothing is ever lost in translation
  • We focus on the little details and anecdotes that make Dark Rome so special