Complete Early Morning Vatican Tour | Small Group
Overview
Join our exclusive small group Vatican tour in the early morning, and see the sights at your own pace. Get early entrance to the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums & Raphael Rooms. In small groups, you’re guaranteed to have personal attention that is hard to come by at this venue.
Meet at our comfortable offices less than a block from the museum entrance where you’ll be pampered with hotel-like service, an Italian breakfast with croissant and cappuccino, and true hospitality.
Enjoy the Vatican City in a small group for personal attention from your expert storyteller guide without getting herded around.
Traveling in a small group with a top-rated English-speaking guide at the helm, you’re guaranteed an unforgettable experience at Rome's most fascinating art attraction.
To ensure all travelers a complete tour, your expert guide will bring you first to St.Peter’s Basilica to enjoy it empty!
Meet at our comfortable offices less than a block from the museum entrance where you’ll be pampered with hotel-like service, an Italian breakfast with croissant and cappuccino, and true hospitality.
Enjoy the Vatican City in a small group for personal attention from your expert storyteller guide without getting herded around.
Traveling in a small group with a top-rated English-speaking guide at the helm, you’re guaranteed an unforgettable experience at Rome's most fascinating art attraction.
To ensure all travelers a complete tour, your expert guide will bring you first to St.Peter’s Basilica to enjoy it empty!
Inclusions
- Early entrance guaranteed
- Expert English-speaking tour guide
- Headsets to hear the guide clearly
- Skip-the-line access to St. Peter’s Basilica
- Meeting point easy to find at an office
- Guaranteed to skip the lines
- Entry/Admission - Gallery of Tapestries
- Entry/Admission - Sistine Chapel
- Entry/Admission - Gallery of Maps
- Entry/Admission - St. Peter's Basilica
- Entry/Admission - Vatican Museums
What to expect
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Pass By: What a Life Tours, Via Santamaura, 14B, 00192 Roma RM, Italy
The activity starts directly at our office located conveniently very close to the Museums' entrance.
Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy
The Vatican Museums feature many works of art that belonged to the different Popes and are full of artistic beauty. Here is a glimpse of some of the most beautiful things to see in the Vatican Museums. Rooms and Galleries of the Vatican Museums, as the Greek Cross Room, the Gallery of Maps, the Gallery of Tapestries, Raphael Rooms and much more!
From a relatively small collection of statues brought in by Julius II, it grew into a gigantic museum to a point that nobody even knows how many items are kept in the vaults and galleries of the Vatican.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Gallery of Maps, VA, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
The Gallery of Maps is a stupendous hallway where geography and history are perfectly intertwined. Created at the end of the 16th century, the entire room is dedicated to customized maps, which display the whole of Italy. On one side of the 393-foot long gallery are two representations of the country: one from the Imperial Roman Era and the other from the 1500s. Each map shows political happenings, religious roles, and major battles. The ceiling is no less remarkable, with frescoed scenes displaying episodes and miraculous events of apostles, saints, and martyrs, which are linked to the geographical maps below.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Gallery of Tapestries, VA, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
The world-renowned tapestries adorning the walls of this breathtaking gallery used to hang in the Sistine Chapel until they were moved to their present-day location. The most esteemed pieces of the collection are the carpets based on Raphael’s drawings, depicting crucial scenes from the life of Jesus. Out of these 9 tapestries, we recommend paying some special attention to The Resurrection of Christ, which is woven in many layers, creating a surprising optical illusion as you walk by. It took the weavers 4 years to finalize the masterpiece and they cleverly used materials of different densities in order to obtain the eye-deceiving effect.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Sistine Chapel, Viale Vaticano, 00165 Vatican City Italy
Once inside the Vatican Museums, it’s straight to the main event – the Sistine Chapel. Gaze upon Michelangelo’s stupefying ceiling, Creation of Adam and the Last Judgment in awe, sharing the space with your group and a few others. Take your time – and savor each moment – because this is an experience you’ll never want to forget, as you nearly reach out and touch one of humankind’s most astounding creative achievements.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
If you thought the size of the Vatican Museums was overwhelmingly spectacular, St. Peter’s Basilica takes the “wow factor” to another level. The sheer capacity of the interiors is enough to leave any visitor searching for words to describe its vastness. At 613 feet long, 85 feet wide and 147 feet high, it took an incredible 120 years to build, starting from 1506. Admire Michelangelo’s unparalleled Pietà masterpiece and stroll towards the center right nave to observe Bernini’s 30-foot high bronze Baldachin, which sits directly atop the site of St. Peter’s tomb.
Duration: 45 minutes
Pass By: St. Peter's Square, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
A visit to Vatican City would not be complete without standing in awe of the beauty in St. Peter’s Square, also known as Piazza San Pietro. This massive square framing St. Peter’s Basilica is the location where the pope holds Wednesday General Audiences and special masses on religious holidays.
Besides being an extremely sacred place for the Catholic Church, the square itself features a breathtaking architectural design. During the late 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini erected a series of huge Doric colonnades extending out like arms from the basilica. If you stand in the right spot, the rows that consist of four columns, appear to converge as one. This optical illusion shows the incredible architectural precision of the time!
To make the most of your trip to Vatican City, we recommend you join a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica to learn the grand history behind this marvelous city from an expert guide.
Pass By: Vatican City, Vatican City, Lazio
Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It's home to the Pope and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling.
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Pass By: What a Life Tours, Via Santamaura, 14B, 00192 Roma RM, Italy
The activity starts directly at our office located conveniently very close to the Museums' entrance.
Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy
The Vatican Museums feature many works of art that belonged to the different Popes and are full of artistic beauty. Here is a glimpse of some of the most beautiful things to see in the Vatican Museums. Rooms and Galleries of the Vatican Museums, as the Greek Cross Room, the Gallery of Maps, the Gallery of Tapestries, Raphael Rooms and much more!
From a relatively small collection of statues brought in by Julius II, it grew into a gigantic museum to a point that nobody even knows how many items are kept in the vaults and galleries of the Vatican.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Gallery of Maps, VA, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
The Gallery of Maps is a stupendous hallway where geography and history are perfectly intertwined. Created at the end of the 16th century, the entire room is dedicated to customized maps, which display the whole of Italy. On one side of the 393-foot long gallery are two representations of the country: one from the Imperial Roman Era and the other from the 1500s. Each map shows political happenings, religious roles, and major battles. The ceiling is no less remarkable, with frescoed scenes displaying episodes and miraculous events of apostles, saints, and martyrs, which are linked to the geographical maps below.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Gallery of Tapestries, VA, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
The world-renowned tapestries adorning the walls of this breathtaking gallery used to hang in the Sistine Chapel until they were moved to their present-day location. The most esteemed pieces of the collection are the carpets based on Raphael’s drawings, depicting crucial scenes from the life of Jesus. Out of these 9 tapestries, we recommend paying some special attention to The Resurrection of Christ, which is woven in many layers, creating a surprising optical illusion as you walk by. It took the weavers 4 years to finalize the masterpiece and they cleverly used materials of different densities in order to obtain the eye-deceiving effect.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Sistine Chapel, Viale Vaticano, 00165 Vatican City Italy
Once inside the Vatican Museums, it’s straight to the main event – the Sistine Chapel. Gaze upon Michelangelo’s stupefying ceiling, Creation of Adam and the Last Judgment in awe, sharing the space with your group and a few others. Take your time – and savor each moment – because this is an experience you’ll never want to forget, as you nearly reach out and touch one of humankind’s most astounding creative achievements.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
If you thought the size of the Vatican Museums was overwhelmingly spectacular, St. Peter’s Basilica takes the “wow factor” to another level. The sheer capacity of the interiors is enough to leave any visitor searching for words to describe its vastness. At 613 feet long, 85 feet wide and 147 feet high, it took an incredible 120 years to build, starting from 1506. Admire Michelangelo’s unparalleled Pietà masterpiece and stroll towards the center right nave to observe Bernini’s 30-foot high bronze Baldachin, which sits directly atop the site of St. Peter’s tomb.
Duration: 45 minutes
Pass By: St. Peter's Square, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
A visit to Vatican City would not be complete without standing in awe of the beauty in St. Peter’s Square, also known as Piazza San Pietro. This massive square framing St. Peter’s Basilica is the location where the pope holds Wednesday General Audiences and special masses on religious holidays.
Besides being an extremely sacred place for the Catholic Church, the square itself features a breathtaking architectural design. During the late 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini erected a series of huge Doric colonnades extending out like arms from the basilica. If you stand in the right spot, the rows that consist of four columns, appear to converge as one. This optical illusion shows the incredible architectural precision of the time!
To make the most of your trip to Vatican City, we recommend you join a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica to learn the grand history behind this marvelous city from an expert guide.
Pass By: Vatican City, Vatican City, Lazio
Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It's home to the Pope and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling.
Additional information
- Not wheelchair accessible
- While the Vatican Museums are equipped with elevators for wheelchair access, they are not conveniently located on the group tour route and only give access to specific sections of the Museums. As a result, we cannot accommodate wheelchairs on this tour.
- Stroller accessible
- A dress code is required to enter places of worship and selected museums. No shorts or sleeveless tops allowed. Knees and shoulders MUST be covered for both men and women. You may risk refused entry if you fail to comply with these dress requirements.
- Please plan on being at the meeting point 20 minutes prior to the start time.
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- From June 1st, 2022, all restrictions have been lifted. No masks or vaccine cards are required in Italy.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travelers
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Ticket delivery
You can present either a paper or an electronic voucher for this activity.
Cancellation
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start time of the experience.
ImreR32
March 2022
Excellent tour, with the the very passionate tour guide Elaine. We loved it, not too long, not too short tour. If you want to see everything in Vatican this is not for you, but if you are looking for a compact tour highlighting the most important Vatican moments, this is just right.
Excellent tour, with the the very passionate tour guide Elaine. We loved it, not too long, not too short tour. If you want to see everything in Vatican this is not for you, but if you are looking for a compact tour highlighting the most important Vatican moments, this is just right.M_C
April 2022
Could not give this tour a higher rating. Danielle was exceptional on her knowledge of the Vatican Museum and paid attention to the members of the group and where their interest lie. The Basilica was virtually empty as we were some of the first to tour it. Also, as the tour concluded in the Si...
Could not give this tour a higher rating. Danielle was exceptional on her knowledge of the Vatican Museum and paid attention to the members of the group and where their interest lie. The Basilica was virtually empty as we were some of the first to tour it. Also, as the tour concluded in the Sistine Chapel, we were able to linger and really take in the view. We also had a member of our family need to reschedule until later in the day. They were able to accommodate the schedule request and were truly concerned about the family member who had fallen ill. The consideration and kindness showed by all should be commended.88thomask
April 2022
Our tour guide, SIsi, was excellent! A Roman woman who was passionate about her country, the architecture and the art, but also had an amazing ability to make fun of her country and people too. Energetic and entertaining!! We’ll worth the visit!! Very well educated about history!
Our tour guide, SIsi, was excellent! A Roman woman who was passionate about her country, the architecture and the art, but also had an amazing ability to make fun of her country and people too. Energetic and entertaining!! We’ll worth the visit!! Very well educated about history!JohnMauritz
April 2022
We had the luxury of having Elaine as our guide for this tour, and we couldn’t have been more happy! She was such an experienced and interesting guide which made the whole experience really interesting and memorable. If you get the chance: take this tour! It’s 100% worth every penny and we are so...
We had the luxury of having Elaine as our guide for this tour, and we couldn’t have been more happy! She was such an experienced and interesting guide which made the whole experience really interesting and memorable. If you get the chance: take this tour! It’s 100% worth every penny and we are so happy we did it!Julian_M
March 2022
A brilliant early morning tour with Mario. The pace of the tour the knowledge of the guide and the low crowd numbers early in the morning made this a very memorable trip.
A brilliant early morning tour with Mario. The pace of the tour the knowledge of the guide and the low crowd numbers early in the morning made this a very memorable trip.samanthasQ7373HZ
March 2022
This tour is a MUST! An absolute must if you want to enjoy Vatican City. The early morning tour allows you into St. Peter's Basilica with no line and very few other visitors. This means you can stand in front of Michaelangelo's Pieta for as long as you want without fighting any crowds. 20 minutes...
This tour is a MUST! An absolute must if you want to enjoy Vatican City. The early morning tour allows you into St. Peter's Basilica with no line and very few other visitors. This means you can stand in front of Michaelangelo's Pieta for as long as you want without fighting any crowds. 20 minutes in the church is barely enough time to take it all in, but it works because there are so few other people. I also think it's extremely important to have a guide in the Vatican Museums to avoid overwhelm. Ana was our incredible guide, and she kept us to a schedule that had us moving through the rooms, and she taught us incredible and important things that we would have otherwise missed. The tour concluded right before the Sistine Chapel, so we were able to sit in there as long as we wanted. I truly cannot recommend this tour enough! It is definitely worth the investment.