Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel Guided Tour

Posted By : Sandra_S
Please ensure you buy "skip-the-line tickets" before arriving in Rome. We witnessed very very long lines at The Vatican and the Pantheon and it was EXTREMELY hot the days we were in Rome.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Rome. The excursions were very good. We did have an issue with this excursion. I had booked it for 2:30 p.m. on 9/16/23 bc I had already booked a Pantheon excursion for 11:00 a.m. that day about a month before arriving in Rome. The night before our excursion, VJ from Viator notified me the 2:30 p.m. tour had been moved to 12:30 p.m. with no explanation. I contacted him to let him know that time wouldn't work for us. Basically, he told me that was "too bad". Thank goodness I printed hardcopies of all my excursions and had them in my folder. I did this bc my phone is older and the battery drains quickly. I quickly took a pic of the overall excursion and my voucher and asked him to look for another one for us. He did locate another tour on 9/16 at 5:30 p.m. as that was all he could find. It was difficult locating the tour's starting location and the tour didn't start until 6:00 p.m. This meant we only had a quick 45 min. tour led by a tour guide and the rest was left for us to explore. Unfortunately, The Vatican closed at 8:00 p.m. So, we didn't have much time there. I was very disappointed about the time we had at the Vatican based on the money we paid for the tour. Also, I wasn't thrilled with VJ's above response to me.

Please take note when visiting The Vatican; men and women must have their shoulders and knees covered. I didn't realize men needed both covered. Lucky for us, we met 2 young ladies who offered my husband a scarf in order to cover his shoulders.

Then, the next day, 9/17/23, our Colosseum tour was moved from 11:30 to 12:10. Not a huge issue except if you had other issues planned prior to this. In addition, please plan for unexpected issues. We took a taxi from our hotel directly across the street from The Vatican and our taxi cab driver wasn't able to let us off in front of the Colosseum due to road construction issues and a bike race. The taxi driver drove us as close as he could to the Colosseum, and we walked the last 15 mins. and arrived in time to take the tour. My point is every time we planned to take an excursion, something happened which changed the time. Please allow yourself 15-30 mins. prior to each excursion in order to arrive on time.

Also, it was very difficult to locate our 9/16/23 Viator location in order to start our Pantheon tour. This tour was self-guided, so not too much of an issue when we showed up 15 mins. late to the Viator location. The name of the business wasn't Viator. It was another Tourism shop. Also, not mentioned in Viator's descriptions.

I wish Viator would send me a questionnaire for the other 2 excursions we took with them as there was some additional information omitted from the tour description regarding visiting a church in Corfu. One (men and women) must have their shoulders and knees covered.

Hopefully, my review will help others.
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Posted On : 2023-09-30 08:58:18

Posted By : Jeet1000
LOVED the statues, the murals, the tapestries, everything. Stunning. The Sistine Chapel was so much more vibrant than I expected. So much more beautiful than seen in photos.
NOTE: There is no photographing or videos allowed and people were admonished loudly for trying. The guards continually tell people to be quiet and shout out NO PHOTOS, NO VIDEOS ALLOWED, which ruins the experience a bit.

We did it through a tour company and wish we hadn't. A lot of time was wasted while they took us outside and showed us these display boards that showed how the Sistine Chapel changed over time. There were at least 10 of these boards set up with various tour groups all doing the same thing at each of the boards. Our guide was passive and didn't know how to get us in to see the board and we stood a lot waiting for a turn for something we cared little about. You skip the line but you are forced through quickly and are made to focus on art objects that they want to talk about vs. what you want to spend time on.

Aside from the tour, the art is SO worth seeing.
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Posted On : 2023-05-08 21:19:58

Posted By : frankkN3574RE
After planning for a year and booking a Vatican tour 3 months ago, the City Wonders company decided to cancel our tour the afternoon before the tour date. No explanation, just an email message.

So my warning to fellow travelers don't believe ratings !
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Posted On : 2022-05-30 14:11:59

Posted By : ericdF5709DI
Be wary if you contract with this company for a Rome tour. We scheduled three tours. The 1st one, a tour of the Colosseum, was canceled the eve before because the guide contracted COVID. Understandable. What wasnt was there was no plan B. No backup guide. Just a late evening phone call that said the tour is canceled. Fine, I thought. This was our 1st of 6 days in Rome. Surely we could reschedule. Yes, but the exact tour we had signed up for was unavailable every single day. That is not understandable. We had to settle for a similar, but less desirable to us, tour .

Very next day, we had a semi-private tour of St Peters Basilica. We show up 20min early. No tour guide. 15min after your was to start, no tour guide. I called the number on our confirmation email 18 times. No answer. Tried online chat. No response "busy, try again later". Finally, someone else in our group, nobody I knew, yelled she had gotten through. The guide called in with a family emergency. Again, understandable. But no backup guide, no communication of any kind. We disbanded, made the best of it and toured the Basilica on our own.

I managed, after many attempts, to contact City Wonders, later that day and was told id get a full refund. Hopefully, I will. But they never reached out to us.

Today we had our 3rd tour - The Vatican museums and Sistene Chapel. Elena did a wonderful job. Highly knowledgeable and highly recommended.

I would not use this company again.
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Posted On : 2022-05-18 18:26:50

Posted By : Kirsty S
The Vatican is incredible but there's so much beauty that it's hard to know where to start looking without the help of an expert. We were lucky to have Hilaria as our guide on our recent tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. She's clearly extremely knowledgeable about art, given her background as an art restorer, but more importantly, she loves the contents of the Vatican Museum and that showed in her enthusiasm and the way her knowledge brought the pieces to life. There is no way I would have got as much out of my visit with a guidebook or one of those self-guided tours. Being able to have Hilaria describe the history of certain pieces and there to answer questions was a highlight of my trip to Rome.
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Posted On : 2022-02-27 04:57:06

Posted By : gk430523
Once in a lifetime experience visiting the Chapel and Basilica. Guide had good knowledge on very detail and was friendly.
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Posted On : 2020-05-28 23:15:16

Posted By : pkumar140213
Our guide made the tour very engaged and was knowledgeable and friendly. Overall a good experience in the Vatican
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Posted On : 2020-01-12 15:38:33

Posted By : Michael_R
This tour is way overrated for what you get. You will be rushed through a very small subset of the Vatican museums, with almost no time to look at anything that the guide does not cover. You will not be guided through the Sistine Chapel or the Basilica, so that part of the Tour title is misleading. I would recommend touring the Vatican at your own pace, without a guide, unless you are ok with paying a lot to see very little.
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Posted On : 2019-12-17 08:30:46

Posted By : d5v9n
The only and best way to have a view of the Vatican City. It would have been easy to be lost without the tour.
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Posted On : 2019-10-10 08:35:57

Posted By : anupaml69
A great experience - once in a lifetime visit to the museum, Chapel & Basilica. You won’t want to wait in the line then be sure you book this activity. Guide was fantastic and extremely knowledgeable.
Something you MUST DO when in Rome.
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Posted On : 2019-09-06 06:45:39