Tour Overview

This Private Vatican Tour matches you with a Private Presto Guide who brings you through the maze of the Vatican City as you enter into to the Vatican Museums’ world renowned art collection, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.

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Private Vatican Tour

At present, the Vatican City boasts a stellar roster of artwork. The core artistry we will visit on this Private Vatican Tour will be by Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. Along the way, brace yourselves for the stories which you will hear: the historic legends, myths, scandals, and secrets of the smallest country in the world, the Vatican City.

The Catholic Church has been collecting some of the most treasured art for centuries.  The Vatican Museums were founded 500 years ago with a discovery of a sculpture in a vineyard near Rome.  Within a week of finding the sculpture, it officially became the first art piece of the Vatican Museums.  Now it has expanded into 54 galleries filled with paintings, sculptures, and artifacts.

Inside the Vatican Museums, you’ll be surrounded by both ancient masterpieces such as the Belvedere Apollo, a Roman second century copy from a Greek bronze original possibly by Leochares (330-320 B.C.), and Renaissance masterpieces such as the Mass of Bolsena by Raphael. Before silently revelling your senses inside the Sistine Chapel (there is no talking allowed inside this holy site), your Presto guide will recap the Biblical Story of Creation, the Downfall of Humanity, and the Story of Noah, which Michelangelo depicted in his world-renowned frescos. Whilst exploring the making of the Sistine Chapel, we will take a peek into the politics of the Vatican City’s art commissions and get to know the artists’ with the help of your guide’s favorite anecodotes.

Finally we will visit St. Peter’s Basilica, named after St. Peter, the first Pope and the modern day patron saint of Rome. Architect Donato Bramante designed the Basilica with a precise symbolism which according to Arnaldo Bruschi can be “schematised – in accord with an ancient, mostly Byzantine tradition – as a cube (the world) with four extending arms (the four parts of the world), and a dome above it (heaven).” Inside the Basilica we will find another of Michelangelo’s masterpieces, his sculpture, the Pieta’, and more.

If you prefer, we also have a 7:30 AM Private Early Bird Vatican Tour or if you’d like to have breakfast in the Pinecone Courtyard of the Vatican Museums, you might like our Private Vatican Tour and Breakfast.