The Vatican sponsors guided tours conducted by official Vatican tour guides and bookable directly with the Vatican. The two-hour Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tour visits the Pio Clementino Museum, the Gallery of Candelabras, the Map Rooms, the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The three-hour Art and Faith Itinerary adds a visit to St. Peter's Basilica to the tour described above. Audio guides are available for rental for those who prefer self-guided tours, and tours of the Vatican Gardens can also be reserved. Archaeological tours of the underground Necropolis and the excavations of St. John Lateran, known as the Scavi Tour, are Vatican exclusives and require booking at least 90 days in advance.
Rick Steves, the PBS television travel series host and guide book author, has created audio tours that can be downloaded for free from iTunes or his Web site and put on a personal MP3 player. There are tours of the St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the city of Rome. Accompanying maps are downloadable and printable on the same Web site.
Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door Podcasts
ricksteves.com/news/podcast_menu.htm
Gray Line Tours offers guided visits to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and some tours have an optional visit to St. Peter's Basilica. Wednesday mornings there are tours that include a Papal audience. Sunday mornings, from July through September, Gray Line offers a tour that covers city highlights and then travels to Castelgandolfo, the Pope's summer home, for a Papal blessing.
Gray Line Rome
Piazza Dell Esquilino 6/7
00185 Rome
Italy
+39-6-48786601
grayline.com/Grayline/destinations/europe/rome.go
Dark Rome offers a wide array of Vatican visits, all of which focus on small groups and in-depth tours. There are traditional half-day or full-day visits, arrangements for a Wednesday Papal audience and several semi-private and private tours. Semi-private tours of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel are limited to eight guests and enter before the general public is admitted. On select Friday evenings in the spring and fall there, is the A Night at the Museum Tour which takes up to 15 people. On those nights, the Vatican Museums stay open until 11:00 p.m.
Dark Rome
+39-698968955
darkrome.com
Walks in Rome operates small group and private tours of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. It is one of few companies that offers private tours of the Vatican Gardens, a four-hour excursion that also visits the Sistine Chapel. Vatican tours can be combined with the company's Roman tours, including Christian Rome, which visits other important churches and Papal tombs.
Walks in Rome
+39-335-8193359
walksinsiderome.com
