Your tour starts at the entrance to the Vatican Museums where you meet your guide and with skip-the-line entry bypass the waiting crowds, leave your belongings in the Vatican cloakrooms, make use of the free and very clean toilet facilities and follow your guide on a journey of discovery! The first ports of call on the tour are the rooms where you can see Ancient Greek and Roman art. When the Popes ruled Central Italy these artworks were collected from various excavation sites in the city of Rome and brought to the Vatican. Your guide will point out the most notable of these masterpieces including the Belvedere Apollo, the Torso, busts of Claudius and Hadrian and the sarcophagi of Helen and Constance, the mother and daughter of the Emperor Constantine. The tour continues with visits to the Room of Animals and the Gallery of Candelabra.A short walk takes you to the Gallery of Tapestries, the Sobieski Rooms and the Rooms of Raphael.

We then reach the famous Sistine Chapel, the most visited site in the whole of Italy and known throughout the world as the place where new Popes are elected. Talking is prohibited in the Chapel so your guide will explain about the wonders you will see once inside and also tell you some interesting facts and anecdotes about this magical place. See Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling depicting the Last Judgment, the Creation of Adam and the Genesis and the Stories of Moses and Jesus painted on the Chapel walls by Botticelli, Perugino and other famous Renaissance artists.

It is then time for a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica where you will explore the numerous side chapels with their hidden crypts. You will see Michelangelo’s Pietà and your guide will explain why this is the only work that he signed. You will gain an appreciation of the mastery that went into the creation of Bernini’s altarpiece and learn how Michelangelo triumphed over his contemporaries for the honour to paint St. Peter’s magnificent dome. There is still more to see though below ground level. You guide will lead you below ground to the papal crypt where, over the centuries, many of the Popes have been interred. This special place is a site of pilgrimage for many Catholics. Although talking is allowed, before you enter the crypt you guide will tell you where the most important popes are laid to rest.

You will also learn something of the architecture of this magnificent edifice and the symbols and rituals that make this church so special. Your guide will bid you a farewell in Saint Peter’s Square but not before telling you some of the secrets and curious facts about Bernini’s famous square. You will also see the balcony where the crowds await the white smoke signifying the election of a new Pope. What a marvelous end to this wonderful Vatican tour!