Vatican Small Group Tour with Early Entrance

With our Vatican Small Group Tour with Early Entrance, you will have the opportunity to visit the Vatican with an expert guide as part of a small group.

You will have the added bonus of entering the Museums ahead of the opening to the general public.

During the 3 hours of the tour, you will admire the most beautiful and important rooms of the Vatican Museums, such as the Upper Galleries, Raphael Rooms, and Borgia Apartment. Then, you will see the amazing Michelangelo's frescoes inside the Sistine Chapel, before entering the St. Peter's Basilica, where you will find Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's Baldacchino, among the many beautiful decorations.

This a perfect opportunity to visit the Vatican and learn about its many treasures away from the daily crowds.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy

Your tour will start visiting the Vatican Museums and Upper Galleries, including the one of the Maps, Tapestries, and Candelabra. The galleries are connecting the north section of the Vatican Palace with the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica of St. Peter’s. The rooms preserved many Roman statues discovered during the excavations and many spectacular painted rooms

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy

Then, you will arrive in the Raphael Rooms, which were part of the apartment of Pope Julius II. While the young Raphael was painting the Room of the “Signatura”, Michelangelo was painting the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The two artists were rivals but Raphael later recognized the talent of Michelangelo, as we can know from the “School of Athens”. Then, you will see the Parnassus and the Dispute over the Sacrament, too.

Duration: 20 minutes

Stop At: Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy

After having visited the Raphael Rooms, you will reach the Borgia Rooms. This apartment was painted by Pinturicchio and his school and commissioned by the Spanish Pope Alexander VI Borgia. They are located inside the oldest section of the Apostolic Palace. You will see its main rooms that preserve also part of the artworks from modern and contemporary art.

Duration: 20 minutes

Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy

The last area of the Vatican Museums you will visit is one of the Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries. The creation of these galleries had been possible thanks to the several donations in honor of Pope Paul VI, who called back o the Church the modern and contemporary artists recreating the link between art and church, during a special speech inside the Sistine Chapel. Many donations arrived from the United States and other countries. You will see Matisse, Chagall, Dalì, and Bacon.

Duration: 20 minutes

Stop At: Sistine Chapel, Citta del Vaticano 1, 00120 Vatican City Italy

After the Vatican Museums, you will visit Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel with the Frescoes that he painted in the 1500s for the Pope Julius II and Paul III. Michelangelo first painted the Ceiling where he represented the Creation of the World, from the Genesis book, and stories of Noah’s life. The Renaissance “Genius” when he was 61 years old he will come back to paint in five years only Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: St. Peter's Square, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy

Finally, you will admire the amazing Basilica that was built from 1506 and that has replaced the Medieval Basilica built under Emperor Constantine. The Basilica took 120 years to be completed and many architects, including Raphael and Michelangelo, worked on the project. The decoration of the inside of the Basilica is very Baroque thanks to the “Genius of the Baroque" Gian Lorenzo Bernini who projected the “Altar of the Chair of St. Peter” and the Baldachin. Inside the Basilica, you will see the beautiful chapel that preserves Michelangelo’s Pieta. The artist represented this painful moment with the body of Jesus laying on the laps of his mother after the deposition from the Cross.

Duration: 30 minutes