Wheelchairs are available free of charge at the entrance to the Vatican Museums.
These free wheelchairs that the Vatican provides can only be used in the Museums and the Sistine Chapel, you cannot take the wheelchair with you to St. Peter’s Basilica, they must be returned to the entrance of the Vatican Museums. This is ok should you wish to visit only the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.
Since a tour is not complete without visiting St Peter’s Basilica our clients normally choose a tour that enables them to visit the Vatican Museum, Sistine chapel and continue with a short cut going directly into St Peter’s Basilica. In this case, the free wheelchair becomes a problem, as it means you’ll have to go all the way back to the entrance to return it and you’ll not be able to go directly from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica, like most people do, and save a lot of walking and time.
If you need to use a wheelchair for the whole Vatican tour, which includes the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, we have wheelchairs that we rent to our customers, for the price of 30 Euros for the tour. They can be picked up from our offices, where you will meet your guide for your private tour of the Vatican, at the end of the tour you must bring it back to our offices again. It is also possible to book with us a person who pushes the wheelchair for the duration of the tour, at the cost of 60 euro) he would then bring the wheelchair back to our offices.
Free admission at the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. People with permanent disabilities and one person who accompanies them, do not have to pay the admission fee to enter the Vatican Museums, a statement from a doctor or hospital certifying the disability is required.
If you use a mobility scooter, or even a wheelchair, and you cannot walk down the steps which from the Sistine Chapel take you to St. Peter’s, you’ll have to go all the way back to the entrance, then circle around the outside of the Vatican city walls and enter St. Peter’s from the square.
From the Sistine Chapel there are steps that take you directly to St Peter’s (saving going back to the museum entrance and circling around the Vatican walls). If you can walk down these 5 flights of stairs, a wheelchair can be used beforehand and then it can be folded, carried down the stairs and used for the rest of the tour.
However, if you use an electrical mobility scooter this would be too heavy to carry down the steps, so circling the Vatican walls is the only solution. If you would like to rent from us a wheelchair for this tour, it has a cost of 30 euro, it has to be returned to our offices at the end of the tour.
