The guides of our Private tours are official guides, fully authorized, highly specialized and multilingual. They will make your tour memorable!
This tour requires walking about 2 miles indoors and you cannot take shortcuts. From the Museums entrance to the Sistine Chapel takes 45 minutes upwards. Once you enter you have to go through the whole thing and there are very few places where one can sit and rest. Therefore, if you have mobility issues, we recommend using a wheelchair for this tour. The Sistine Chapel cannot be visited separately from the Vatican Museums.

Visiting the Vatican – What’s is it like, what do you see, how long does it take?

The other day, at about 3pm, this lady walked into our office and asked for a golf cart tour.

We asked when she wanted to go and she said “Later on this afternoon, because we’re going to the Vatican now.”

I told her that if she was entering the Vatican at 3:30 pm, her golf cart tour could only be in the evening or the day after, because she was going to be spending at least three hours in the Vatican.

She replied:

“No, we’ll be quick, we only want to see that room with the ceiling painted by Leonardo”.

When I told her that the room she wanted to see is called the Sistine Chapel and that it was not Leonardo but Michelangelo who painted that ceiling and that she would have to walk through museums to get there, she was not happy and perhaps thought I was trying to scam her.

So, she just gave me a dirty look and she walked out. Sorry lady!

For a lot of tourists “Vatican” means “Sistine Chapel” and they think they can just walk into the room, look at the paintings and get back out, but that’s not how it works.

I hope you will read more as I would like to explain how the Vatican tour works. Vatican Museums.

Let’s start by saying that there is no other way to get to the Sistine Chapel than through the Vatican Museums and, mind this, what’s housed in the museums is not all about the Roman Catholic Religion.

There is so much in there that no matter what one’s background and interests, there will be something that will catch their eye.

Egyptian Mummies? Got them.

Artifacts from the Near and Far East? Got them.

Classic cars? Got them.

Moon rocks? Got them.

Jewels? Got them.

Etruscan artifacts? Got them.

Roman statues? Got them.

Ancient Geographic Maps? Got them.

And more, more, more…

Thousands of people visit the Vatican Museums every day and, the more crowded the place gets, the longer it takes to visit it.

Why? Because the more crowded it becomes, the more they try to disperse the crowd by making them take a longer route to reach the Sistine Chapel.

I hear many people say “We’ll go in the morning so we’ll beat the crowds.”

But they all say that, so the place is less crowded in the afternoon!

By the way, the tour of the Vatican is a bit problematic for those who use walking aids, but we have the remedy. Contact us to find out more about our tour for the elderly and disabled.

Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is a relatively small room, 40x14m (131x45ft) so it gets overcrowded quite easily.

Therefore, they don’t let you hang around for a long time, they let people out after a few minutes.

Also, they want people to be silent in the room, no pictures or videos are permitted, and the janitors keep shushing you and yelling “SILENCE!” and “NO PICTURES! NO VIDEOS”!

This means that tour guides must talk about the Sistine Chapel before they get there, and for this purpose they use the images that are displayed in museum courtyards or bring their own images to display.

In our case, we give our guests brochures with pictures of the Sistine frescoes with captions.

Importantly, if you are visiting with a guide, you can exit directly from the Sistine Hill onto St. Peter’s Square and enter the Basilica.

Those visiting the Vatican without a guide must go back and exit the Vatican Museums, walk out of the Vatican a mile, and queue again for the security checkpoint, which could take an hour or more.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Countless times I’ve heard people say they weren’t interested in visiting St. Peter’s, but I wish I’d recorded their comments after I was finally able to convince them to enter the place:

“My God!” “This is what I really wanted to see!” “This is truly overwhelming!” etc., etc.…

Skipping St. Peter’s would be a real shame.

Firstly, if the emperor Constantine hadn’t built a church over the tomb of St. Peter there would have been no Vatican, no Sistine Chapel, and Rome would have been a completely different place.

But let’s not consider the religious aspect of the building if we want, only the works of art kept in it and its dimensions, which make of it one of the most important buildings in the world and the art masterpieces it houses.

Let me give you an idea of what you see in St. Peter’s:

Michelangelo: his work as a sculptor, the “Pietà” and, as an architect, the project of the dome and part of the church itself.

Bernini: the funeral monuments of Pope Urban VIII, Alexander VII, Christina of Sweden, the Canopy above the Papal Altar, the High Altar and more…

Concluding, please do not be afraid of spending 3 hours in the Vatican, it’ll be time well spent and, above all, please don’t skip St. Peter’s!

Rome Time:

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Private Vatican Walking Tour Daytime - Duration 3 Hours

Private, guided tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica
Includes private guide and “skip-the-line” tickets to the Vatican Museums.

Difficulty rank:

Meet your guide at our office near the Vatican

Via Santamaura, 9 ,00192 Rome Phone +390694329438
We will inform you about your scheduled entry slot.
We recommend that you take this tour in afternoon, around 2.00 or 2.30 pm, as this is when the place is normally least crowded, but the tour is also available in the morning.
Please arrive at the office approximately 30 minutes before scheduled entry time.

Enter the Vatican Museums with your private guide.

Your specialized private guide will have your skip-the-line voucher and take care of the entry formalities.

Follow your guide through the Galleries and finally arrive at the Sistine Chapel.
It’s a long walk and you see a lot of art on display.
Paintings, tapestries, frescoes, and statues dating back to different eras and made by different artists.

The subjects of these artworks are not always related to the Catholic Church, in fact you will also see ancient Roman statues, Egyptian, Etruscan, and Greek artifacts, your guide will tell you about them and will always be ready to answer your questions. It’s a walk you’ll love

St. Peter's Basilica

Dear guest, our tour of the Vatican has traditionally included the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.
However, due to the large number of pilgrims visiting Rome for the Holy Year, there may be challenges in including the Basilica in the tour this year.
We will make every effort to keep it part of the Vatican tour, but it may not always be possible.
Occasionally, the Basilica may be closed without prior notice or used for special ceremonies. In such cases, entry may still be permitted, but guides may not be allowed to speak and provide explanations.
We apologize in advance to those who may not be able to visit the Basilica.

Eventually, you’ll arrive at the Sistine Chapel and will be reminded to keep silent

No one can speak in the Sistine Chapel, and so the guide will use illustrated panels to tell the story before entering the room.
We will however give you a booklet with pictures of the frescoes and captions that you can use to remind you of what your guide has explained to you once you are alone contemplating the chapel.
Also, it is not allowed to take photos or videos in the Sistine Chapel. Those caught taking pictures or talking are expelled and their guide is held accountable and fined.

Rules and dress code of the Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel
Rules: No speaking, no picture, no videos.
Dress code: shoulders must be covered, skirts and shorts must cover the knees.
he guide will use illustrated panels to tell the story before entering the room.

St. Peter’s Basilica
Rules: You can speak softly, take pictures and videos.

If you have more than 5 people in your group, your guide must provide you with earphones and speak to you through a microphone.
Dress code: shoulders must be covered, skirts and shorts must cover the knees.

More Vatican tours

You can also visit the Basilica separately from the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel if you have the time. Please visit the website for the details of these two tours:
– St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican “Grottoes” and Dome.
– Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

Museo-Chiaramonti,-part-of-the-Vatican-Museums

Please note:

Certified Disabled:

Please send us a properly scanned copy of your disability certificate, not a photo taken with your mobile phone.
So if you forget to bring it with you, we will print it for you.
Please note that we cannot give you the disability discount if you do not provide us with the certificate.

If you are coming on a cruise for the day, do not book this tour. Please find the tours that are right for you here: Tours For Cruisers

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Special for those with mobility issues

Vatican Museums & St. Peter's Basilica
Private Walking Tour - Duration 6 Hours

Crucial: Your disability must be proven by a statement from a hospital or doctor. Duration about 6 hours including transfers.
Private guided tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The tour is led by a private guide, and guests are provided with skip-the-line tickets. This tour includes transfers by private car from your place of stay to the Vatican Museums, from the Vatican Museums to St. Peter’s and then back to your place of stay.

What makes visiting the Vatican difficult for people with walking aids is that they are not allowed to go down the steps that connect the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Square, even if they physically could.

Why does it take 6 hours?

The Vatican Tour for people with mobility issues lasts 6 hours because we include all private car transfers for our guests throughout the tour:

○ From their place of stay to the Vatican Museums.

○ From the Vatican Museums to St. Peter’s.

○ From St. Peter’s back to their place.

The transfer from the Vatican Museums to St. Peter’s is crucial because people with walking aids are not allowed to go down the steps that connect the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Square, even if they physically could.

Not being able to use this shortcut, to reach St. Peter’s, they should walk back to the entrance of the Vatican Museums and, from there, reach St. Peter’s from the outside.

Not counting the internal part of the Vatican Museums, this would be an extra mile to walk. The Vatican Tour for people with mobility issues lasts 6 hours because we include all private car transfers for our guests throughout the tour

Difficulty rank:

What’s included and how this tour is handled:

Transfer by private car, private guide speaking your language and skip the line tickets.

We meet you at your place and drive you to our office in a private car or minivan, depending on your group’s size.
Our office is very close to the Vatican Museums’ entrance:
Via Santamaura, 9, 00192 Roma Phone +390694329438
Once at our office, meet your guide and start your private tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.
After visiting the Sistine Chapel, you walk all the way back to the entrance the Vatican Museums and, once you exit the venue, meet with your driver again and transfer to St. Peters’ Square.
Once at St. Peters’ Square you’ll have to go through security check again, but without having to stand in line, because those with mobility issues have a privileged access.
After visiting St. Peter’s, you’ll once again meet your driver and drive back to your place.
Your guide will be assisting you throughout the whole tour and, beside illustrating the artworks, will also help wit the logistics, like entry formalities, contacting the driver and whatever else will be necessary.

Crucial: Your disability must be proven by a statement from a hospital or doctor.

St. Peter's Basilica

Please note:

Certified Disabled:

If you are coming on a cruise for the day, do not book this tour. Please find the tours that are right for you here: Tours For Cruisers

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Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

Difficulty rank:

Partially Accessible

Not accessible to children under the age of six and wheelchair users

This tour can’t be beat! The best way to visit the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel but not only, before doing so, you tour the Vatican Gardens on an open deck electric bus! However, there is a catch, availability is very limited, so be sure to book well in advance.

Meet your guide in our office near the Vatican entrance and reach the place with the guide.

Our office is very close to the entrance to the Vatican Museums.
This is where you will meet your private guide, who will have your very special tickets and will accompany you to the Vatican Museums. The guide will take care of the formalities and will introduce you to the Vatican representative who will accompany you to the bus.

The guide will not accompany you on the tour of the Vatican Gardens, as the bus capacity is very limited, but you will have audio guides.

Board the open deck electric bus and tour the Vatican Gardens.

The Vatican representative will help you board the bus, show you how to use the audio guides and explain that you cannot get up from your seat while the bus is in motion, but you can stand up when it stops.
However, you are not allowed to get off the bus until the tour ends.
At the end of the tour of the Vatican Gardens, you will be directed to the Courtyard of the (picture gallery) which is where you’ll meet again with your private guide and start the tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

Meet again with your guide after the bus tour. Tour the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with your guide.

The guide will take you through the Gallery of Candelabra, Gallery of Tapestries, Gallery of Geographic Maps and finally you’ll arrive to the Sistine Chapel.
Please keep in mind that they want complete silence in the Sistine Chapel and therefore the guide will not be able to describe it to you once you’ll be in it, but will have to tell you about it, with the help of pictures, before you actually get there. Also, you can take all the pictures you want in the Gardens and the Museums, but not in the Sistine Chapel. Those who insist on speaking or taking pictures get thrown out.

From the Sistine Chapel you will go back to the entrance following a different itinerary.

Returning to the entrance you will find yourself in the same buildings, but at a lower level, so you will see more interesting things that your guide will obviously not fail to explain. You will pass through the Christian Museum, the Profane Museum, the Clementine Gallery, the Ethnological Museum, the Carriage Pavilion and more…
You will finally go back to where you started, and we are sure that at this point you will want to have a nice lunch your guide will be happy to recommend a nice place nearby.
Unfortunately, as much as we would like, we cannot include St. Peter’s Basilica on this tour, but for this we have a special tour that includes St. Peter’s Basilica, the Papal Tombs, and the Dome.

Rules and dress code of the Sistine Chapel

Click here for details

More Vatican Tours

You can also visit the Basilica separately from the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel if you have the time. Please visit the website for the details of these two tours: – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican “Grottoes” and Dome. – Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel – Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

If you are coming on a cruise for the day, do not book this tour. Please find the tours that are right for you here: Tours For Cruisers

Please note:

Certified Disabled:

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Private Walking Tour:
St. Peter’s Basilica, Papal Tombs and Dome

Difficulty rank:

Partially Accessible

7:15 am - Meet your guide at Largo del Colonnato.

7:15 am
Meet your guide at Largo del Colonnato, 5.
There is no other way to skip this line, which is only caused by security checks, but enter the seat as early as 8:00 am.
You reach the place on your own and you are on your own again at the end of the tour. However, you have the option of adding a one-way or round-trip transfer service for an additional fee.
This would be convenient if you stay away from the Vatican and have more than 3 people in your group, as most taxis take a maximum of 3 passengers.

Take the lift to the terrace and then climb the stairs to the very top of the Dome.

Firstly, we climb up to the Dome. There might be a bit of a line to get into the elevator in the high season, please be patient.
The lift takes you to the terrace, from where you can enjoy a beautiful view of Rome, saving the climb of the spiral staircase of 231 steps, known as “The snail of Saint Andrew”.
Besides enjoying the view of Rome, which is surely more impressive from the top of the Dome anyway, you can get some refreshments at the local coffee shop. If the climb to the top isn’t for you, maybe you can at least climb the two ramps that will allow you to look inside the Basilica from above.

Look down to the interior of St. Peter’s from above and the mosaics before climbing.

Not everyone knows that the architecture of St. Peter’s dome was designed by Michelangelo and is considered his greatest architect’s masterpiece. However, he’s not responsible for the mosaics that
decorate the dome, they were made by the Vatican Mosaic Studio, established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1572 and still in operation, based on designs by the famous painter Cavalier d’Arpino. Once back down from the Dome, your guide will take you on a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica focused on its highlights.
St. Peter’s is the largest church in the world, took 120 years to build, it’s almost 400 years old and full of priceless works of art which, of course, your guide will be telling you about.

Visit St. Peter’s Basilica and the “Grottoes” before ending the tour in the square.

Once back down from the Dome, we tour the Basilica. The highlights are the Pietà, sculpted by Michelangelo at the age of 24 and numerous works by Bernini, such as the Canopy over the Papal Altar, the funeral
monuments to the Popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII, the “Throne of St. Peter”, and more…
Leaving St. Peter’s, you’ll descend to the “Grottoes”, where 91 Popes are buried, starting from the first one, St. Peter.
Once out of the Basilica and the “Grottoes”, you’ll stop in St. Peter’s Square, designed by Bernini, and your guide will conclude this amazing 3-hour tour explaining the church’s façade, the obelisk, and the
square itself which was designed by Bernini.

Rules and dress code of the Sistine Chapel

Click here for details

More Vatican Tours

You can also visit the Basilica separately from the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel if you have the time. Please visit the website for the details of these two tours: – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican “Grottoes” and Dome. – Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel – Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

If you are coming on a cruise for the day, do not book this tour. Please find the tours that are right for you here: Tours For Cruisers

Note: This tour might not be available on Wednesdays for the Pope receives a public audience and the church remains closed until 2:00 pm.

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Vatican Museums opening schedule, year 2026

Opening days and times

From Monday to Saturday
08.00 a.m. – 08.00 p.m. (final entry 06.00 p.m.)

Every last Sunday of the month
(provided this does not coincide with Easter Sunday, 29* June Sts. Peter and Paul, 25 December Christmas Day, 26 December Feast of St. Stephen and 31 December Feast of St. Sylvester)
09.00 a.m. – 02.00 p.m. (final entry 12.30 p.m.)

Visitors are required to leave the halls 30 minutes before museum closing time.

Closures

Sunday (except the last Sunday of each month, if not in conjunction with the Feast of 29* June, Saints Peter and Paul)
1 and 6 January
11 February
19 March
6 April
1 May
29* June
14 and 15 August
1 November
8, 25 and 26 December

Access to the Vatican is permitted only to visitors wearing proper attire, skirts and shorts must cover the knee and shoulders must be covered .
Tickets for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel are valid only for the date they were purchased for and are non-refundable.

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Difficulty levels

Generally easy, with occasional free time for rest. Walk and/or climb up and down some stairs only if you want to.

Moderately paced, minimal walking required, with occasional free time for rest. May include climbing up and down some stairs and walking, over primarily level ground, for up to half an hour at a time. Moderate car/minivan travel.

Moderately paced with occasional free time for rest. Guests should be able to walk one to three miles, which may include climbing up or down from one to four flights of stairs and walking over primarily level ground. Ride an electric bicycle or a Vespa scooter making frequent stops. Standing up to one hour or more may be required. Moderate car/minivan travel.

Moderately paced with occasional free time for rest. Requires walking longer distances, climbing up and down stairs and hills, possibly on uneven terrain. Guests should be able to walk two to three miles over uneven terrain and/or cobblestones. Moderate car/minivan travel. Standing up to one hour or more may be required.

Moderately paced with occasional free time for rest. Extended car/minivan travel, from two to four hours. Guests should be able to walk two to three miles over uneven terrain and/or cobblestones, climbing up and down stairs and hills. Guests should be able to
walk two to three miles over uneven terrain and/or cobblestones. Wheelchair/walker usable.

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Dress code and rules for the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters.

Sistine Chapel
Rules: No speaking, no picture, no videos.
Dress code: shoulders must be covered, skirts and shorts must cover the knees.
The guide will use illustrated panels to tell the story before entering the room.

St. Peter’s Basilica
Rules: You can speak softly, take pictures and videos.

Golf Cart's pick-up range

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Contact Us

NOTE: We reply to your e-mails almost instantly so, if you don’t get our reply to your e-mail within 48 hours, please check your “spam” folder and/or resend your e-mail to another one of our e-mail addresses and/or call us. For short notice/last minute reservations, please do not just send an e-mail, call our emergency number: +39 393 907 0080.

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“Amazing Tour, great food, sights and awesome guides. We had an amazing tour. Small group, but easily accommodated by City Tour Co. The atmosphere was amazing, the weather was perfect, and the sights were beautiful.”

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