This tour option provides you with priority skip-the-line access, allowing you to bypass the crowds and immerse yourself in the experience alongside a select, intimate group of fellow explorers. You'll step directly into the grand hall of the Vatican Museum, where your captivating adventure into art and history begins!
Before you step inside, you'll be equipped with headsets to catch every fascinating detail from your guide. They’ll then take you on an unforgettable journey through the stunning Vatican Museums, exploring the Upper Galleries, the Raphael Rooms, and the iconic Sistine Chapel.
Your guide will bring the art to life with captivating stories, while also unveiling the intriguing details of Vatican City as an independent state. Dive into its rich history and modern-day life, and uncover what makes the smallest country in the World so extraordinary.
Tour itinerary
Meeting Point
Ristorante "Da Paolo" Viale Vaticano, 104
Pio Clementino Museum
This section of the Vatican Museums was founded by Pope Clement XIV and later amplified by his successor Pius VI. The collection includes acquisitions of countless statues from other collectors, rich Italian families and antiques stores. This sections’ creation aimed to preserve and to display the Greek-Roman works, especially statues, gathered by the Popes throughout several centuries. The name of this section has been given after the two founders.
Laocoön
The Laocoön is one of the main attractions inside the Pio Clementino Museum. It’s believed that the statue was created between the 2nd century BC and 1st century DC. The massive statue was found at the beginning of the 16th century on Colle Oppio, not far away from the Colosseum. Pope Julius II, an art lover and the one who inaugurated the Sistine Chapel, purchased immediately this statue, which together with Apollo del Belvedere, was one of the two main artworks of the Vatican Museums just immediately after their foundation.
Gallery of Candelabra
The Gallery of Candelabra is one of the three Galleries leading toward the Sistine Chapel. An impressive collection of sculptures from all over the Roman Empire will leave you breathless. Decorated ceilings and marble floors create a magic atmosphere surrounded by ancient statues.
Gallery of Maps
The hall of the Gallery of Maps includes one of the biggest collections of painted maps in The World. Created at the end of the 16th century the maps represent all the Italian regions with some peculiarities related to those times.
Gallery of Tapestries
The artworks that you will be able to admire here were originally created for the Sistine Chapel. The original pictures were created by Raffaello with the intention to decorate the private chapel of the Pope. The tapestries were created by the hands of the best artisans of those times, the Flemish tapestry masters in Bruxelles.
Raphael Rooms
The four rooms within the Raphael Rooms formerly were used as Pope Julius’ II apartment. They were commissioned by the Pope, who was known as an art lover, to Raphael, who wasn’t very well known among the artists of those times and who was only 25 years old. Among other important works that Raphael leaves in this section, there are the School of Athens and the Fire in Borgo. The four rooms bring mainly the names of the artworks within each room: The room of Constantine, the Room of Heliodorus, the Room of the Segnatura and the Room of the Fire in the Borgo.
Sistine Chapel
Within the worldwide known Sistine Chapel with the two masterpieces by Michelangelo: the Creation and the Last Judgement. You will discover the extraordinary technique Michelangelo used to paint the magnificent vault and how and why he had decided, thirty years later, to paint the Last Judgement.