Group size

Max 25

Language

English

Duration

2.5 hrs

Start times

11:30 am / 2:30 pm

Skip the long lines at the entrance to visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with one of our passionate and knowledgeable guides. Your guide will enlighten you with historical facts and will entertain you with myths and legends connected to this unique place. You will follow a selected itinerary of one of the biggest Museums in the world with the aim to visit the best of this art collection.

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Breathtaking ceilings of the Gallery of Tapestries

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Skip the line at the St. Peter's Basilica

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The Belvedere Courtyard at the Vatican Museums

Tour Overview

After the Upper Galleries (Gallery of the Candelabra, the Gallery of Tapestries and the Gallery of Maps), you will enter the Sistine Chapel – one of the most visited places on the planet. This tour option will also allow you to skip the line for St. Peter’s Basilica that will be accessible to you directly from the Sistine Chapel. You will have some time to admire the incredible Michelangelo’s frescoes: the Last Judgement and the Sistine Chapel ceiling with the Creation of Adam.

Your guide, when allowed by the Vatican Museums, will escort you through the passage that will bring you directly to the Basilica. At the moment the skip-the-line for the Basilica is not allowed by the Vatican. Once you access the Basilica, you can stay as long as you wish.

Please note that the Basilica is not part of the Vatican Museums and sometimes, according to the Pope’s ceremonies, it can be closed.

Skip the ticket line for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

Tour Itinerary

Meeting Point

City Lights Tours Head Office

Gallery of the Candelabras

This section of Vatican Museums was built in 1761, and it is separated into six sections. The walls and ceilings are decorated with magnificent frescoes while the the marble floors are ornamented with mosaics and marble decorations. The artworks displayed in this segment of the Museums are mostly statues from Roman Empire territories.

Gallery of the Maps

The Vatican Museums’ Gallery of Geographical Maps with around 40 frescoes depicting different parts of Italy is the World’s largest collection of painted maps. The superb topographical work made by Ignazio Danti almost 500 years ago still represents all of the Italian regions with 80% accuracy.

Gallery of the Tapestries

The tapestries in this Gallery were created for the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. The original paintings were made by Raffaello, and later transformed into tapestries by the Flemish artisans in Bruxelles.

The Sistine Chapel

Stunning frescoes inside the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo are a result of meticulous study of Stories of Genesis with well known Creations including the Last Judgement. The legacy of Michelangelo is this artwork that leaves every visitor breathless.

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Featured Highlight

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (Pope from 1471 to 1484) who decided to restore the old Cappella Magna. Later, his nephew, Pope Julius II (Pope from 1503 to 1513) decided to modify the paintings and ornaments inside the Sistine Chapel by assigning the task to Michelangelo Buonarroti who, with years of sacrifice, has painted two masterpieces: the famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the Last Judgement. The Sistine Chapel has been inaugurated on the Feast of All Saints, 1st November 1512.