The Vatican Museums are one of the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including the incredible Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The tour introduces you to the most important artworks in the museum, including the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms. Visitors will be provided with a map of the museum. Headphones ensure perfect audibility of the guide's voice even in those areas of the museum, in which a decorous silence must be observed.
Info & Booking
Daily except Wednesday and Sundays
Duration: about 3 hours (once the tour is over, visitors are free to visit the museum at their leisure)
Meeting point: at the large stairs in Via Tunisi, between the Caffè Vaticano and the Hotel Alemandi
Included: timed entrance to the Vatican Museum (ticket and booking fee), map of the museum, guided tour, headphones
Participants: maximum 30 per group
Languages high season (April 1st to October 31st):
English: Everyday except Wednesday and Sunday at 9:30am
Spanish: Tuesdays and Saturdays at 9:30am
French: Saturdays at 10.30am
Italian: Saturdays at 10.30am
Languages low season (November 1st to March 31st):
English: Everyday except Wednesday and Sunday at 9:30am
Spanish: Saturdays at 9:30am
French: Saturdays at 10.30am
Italian: Saturdays at 10:30am
Rooms closed at the moment of the visit will be indicated at entrance.
Access to the Museums is permitted only to visitors with proper attire.
All the reservations, dates and times might be changed or canceled due to unforeseen circumstances related to activities of the Pope.
Reservations can be made until 2 days before the visit.
PLEASE NOTE: museum starts confirming visits not earlier than two months before the date, so reservation guarantees the insertion into the waiting list. Charge to the credit card takes place the working day after the request; in case visit is not confirmed because of the minimum number of people needed not reached, we will refund the import charged for the visit.
Save time in ordering! Add into your basket all the museum tickets you want, then fill the form and send the request.
Before making your reservation, please, read the Ordering Informations
IMPORTANT NOTICE: After succesfully completing a reservation, you will receive two e- mails: the copy of your order (immediately after submitting your order) and the confirmation mail (two working days after). In order to receive them, please make sure you insert your e-mail address correctly and check that your anti-spam filter or antivirus are not blocking mails from our address [email protected]. Special attention for AOL mailbox users.
Closure:
Sundays (except for the last Sunday of each month, excluding Easter, June 29th and December 25th and 26th)
January 1st and 6th (Epiphany)
February 11th (Lateran Pacts Anniversary)
March 19th (St. Joseph), 23rd and 24th (Easter - Easter Monday)
May 1st (Ascension Thursday) and May 22nd (Corpus Christi Day)
August 14 (Assumption Vigil) and 15th (Assumption Day)
November 1st (All Saint's Day)
December 8th (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), 25th (Christmas Day) and 26th (St. Stephen's Day).
Cancellation policy:
All client cancellations must arrive up to 8 days before the date of the tour to be reimbursed free of charge. If you cancel 8 to 2 days before the date, we keep 10% of the total fee. Further cancellations imply no refund possible. Clients arriving late will not be reimbursed for the missed visit, nor will a client who gets separated from the group during the visit or who does not complete the visit. In case of cancellation of a tour by the tour operator for reasons of force majeur, clients will only be reimbursed for the amount paid for the tour. Tour operator is not responsible for any additional costs in connection with the reimbursement.
Prices
Reduced ticket for children aged 6-14
Free ticket for children under 6 travelling with their parents
Before You Book
PLEASE NOTE: Immediately after submitting an order, you will receive two email. The first email contains your order summary (this one you receive immediately after placing your order), the second email confirms your successful payment (one business day after placing the order). In order to receive these two emails, please make sure that you enter your email address correctly and check that antispam or antivirus filters do not block emails from our [email protected] address. Users of AOL, Comcast and Sbcglobal.net need to pay special attention to this, please. Vouchers will also be available, one business day after the request, at your dashboard.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The time you select on the order form is your preferred time. The closest available time, which can be anytime during opening hours on the selected date, will be automatically confirmed if your preferred time is no longer available.
PRICES
Reduced ticket for children aged 6-14
Free ticket for children under 6 travelling with their parents
Cancellation Policy
All client cancellations must arrive up to 8 days before the date of the tour/course/service to be reimbursed free of charge.
If you cancel 8 to 2 days before the date, 10% of the fee will have to be paid.
From two days prior to the tour/course/service beginning, the payment of the entire amount will be due and no reimbursement will be granted.
No refund will be granted to any client who is not at the place of departure at the time established. Similarly, no refund will be granted to clients who lose contact with the guide or who do not complete the excursion or service.
Guided Visit: Vatican Museums with Sistine Chapel
The Vatican Museums are the largest, richest, most compelling and perhaps most comprehensive museum complex in the world. Many treasures of the city's history are here, from both classical and later times, and many of the Renaissance's finest artists were in the employ of the Pope.
The Vatican Palace holds a collection of museums on very diverse subjects: displays of classical statuary, Renaissance painting, Etruscan relics, Egyptian artifacts, not to mention the furnishings and decoration of the palace itself.
The Vatican Museums are the Egyptian Museum, the Chiaramonti Museum, the Museum of Popes Clement XiV and Pius Vi, Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art, Antiquarium Romanum, the Vase Collection, the Biga Room, the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of the Tapestries, Gallery of the Maps, the Apartment of St.Pius V, the Sobieski Room, the Room of the Immaculate Conception, Raphael's Rooms and Loggias, the Collection of Modern Religious Art, the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Library, the Vatican Picture Gallery, the Gregorian Museum of Profane Art, the Christian Museum, the Missionary Museum of Ethnology, and the Carriage Pavilion.
Justly known as one of the most famous places in the world, the Sistine Chapel is the site where the conclave for the election of the popes and other solemn pontifical ceremonies are held. The ceiling as well as the wall above the altar bear the magnificent frescoes by Michelangelo. Pope Julius II commissioned the Florentine master sculptor and painter to decorate the ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Much later, from 1537 to 1541, Michelangelo was again called to create The Last Judgement on the wall above the altar, a fresco which would change the course of Western art.
Built according to the architectural design of Baccio Pontelli by Giovannino de Dolci between 1475 and 1481, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. A large rectangular room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it is divided into two unequal parts by a marble screen. The screen and the transenna were built by Mino da Fiesole and other artists.