Vatican Tour: Skip-the-Line Access to Art and History

Experience the wonders of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel in a small group tour. Skip the long lines and dive into millennia of art and history with a passionate guide.

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • What a Life Tours - Meeting Point:
    The meeting point is at our office, conveniently located near the Museums’ entrance, with the exact address being Via Santamaura 14B. The nearest Metro stop is Ottaviano. Please allow extra time for potential traffic during the summer months!
    AFTERNOON TOUR - Meeting Point:
    Our office is just a 2-minute walk…
What's Included
  • Skip-the-line entry to the Vatican Museums
  • Entry to the Sistine Chapel
  • 3-hour guided tour
  • English-speaking licensed tour guide
  • Small group experience
  • Headsets for clear audio
  • Convenient meeting point at Via Santamaura 14B
What's Not Included
  • Gratuites
  • St. Peter’s Dome
Additional Information

Why choose this tour? Visiting the Vatican is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! With skip-the-line access, you’ll have more time to delve into centuries of art and history within these revered walls, avoiding the lengthy general admission queues.
In just 3 hours, discover the highlights of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica in…

Location
What a Life Tours
Via Santamaura
*** MEETING POINT *** at our office at Via Santamaura 14B, What a Life Tours. The closest Metro stop is Ottaviano which is a 6-minute walk away. You must allow extra time to reach the meeting point, CHECK-IN is 15 minutes before the tour departure time. WE CANNOT WAIT FOR LATE ARRIVALS.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(5401 Ratings)
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Paige_n
Feb 14, 2025
Highly recommend!! - Our guide Mario was amazing!! Fabulous knowledge of the building, the art, the ties between ancient and Christian Rome. Highly recommend!! The company the hosted had very friendly and helpful staff as well.
Review provided by Viator
Markft6851zn
Feb 4, 2025
Excellent guide, fantastic tour! - One of the best tours I’ve ever been on! With only 12 in the group it was easy to see and hear about the art, architecture, history, etc. Elaine was our guide and she was informative, funny, organized, engaging, and easy to understand. The tour is not cheap but it was well worth it. I highly recommend it. Much better than trying to manage such an overwhelming place on your own!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
James_g
Feb 1, 2025
Vatican Tour - We do not normally book tours with groups. I’m very happy we chose to do this and with a small group. Our guide was awesome! The behind the scenes stories and history was amazing! I highly recommend a tour for this venue. The front of the line pass is awesome! We didn’t wait anywhere.
Review provided by Viator
Richard_m
Jan 27, 2025
A sufficiently detailed... - A sufficiently detailed and well paced tour with a very friendly guide. I would recommend the afternoon tour to anyone.
Review provided by Viator
Elizabeth_s
Jan 15, 2025
Our tour guide, John, was... - Our tour guide, John, was absolutely phenomenal!! This is a great tour & is definitely worth the time.
Review provided by Viator
Mathew
Jan 11, 2025
Great tour of the Vatican. - The small group tour was excellent and John was an excellent guide. There is no better way to tour the Vatican. I would highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mary_r
Jan 8, 2025
Wonderfully run tour was the highlight of our trip to Rome! - Our guided tour for the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, taken with What A Life Tours thru Viator, was fantastico! Our tour guide Gabriel was excellent and the tour was very worth what we paid for it. We were in Rome during the off season, but even so, lines to get into the Vatican were unbelievably long - thanks to the skip the line tickets that came with the tour, we just sailed right in, saving perhaps 1-2 hours of our day. Gabriel was very knowledgeable and his passion for sharing the Vatican's history and art was very apparent in his presentation to the group. He was very solicitous of my mobility issues and several times went out of his way to make sure I had time to catch up to the group or arranged an alternative path for me inside the museums to allow easier access to certain areas. After the official tour ended, he even stayed behind and made sure my husband and I received a special blessing on our marriage and our health. We were very impressed with him and appreciated his helpful attitude, not to mention how he infused a little humor when telling us how certain sculptors and artists signed their works. We will most definitely recommend both Gabriel and What a Life Tours to friends visiting Rome!! Grazie mille for such a wonderful day!
Review provided by Viator
Hayagreeva
Dec 27, 2024
Excellent and informative. - The price tag on this tour is rather stiff but was worth every cent for us. We did the tour just before Christmas which probably was the best day. Our guide John was a veteran and very knowledgeable. Did a commendable job of narrating the story within the time frame. You get 20 minutes or so of personal time inside the Sistine Chapel. No talk or photos. The ceiling is over 60 ft above so it's hard to see frescoes in their true detail. But being inside one of the world's most celebrated rooms is an overwhelming experience. John had given us a good introduction in advance with a handy guide which was very helpful. The tour ends in St Peter's Basilica where you can spend as much time as you want, attend the mass at 5 pm or climb the dome. Alternately take the lift to the gallery high up from where from where you can get a magnificent view of the whole chapel.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Connector24268311839
Dec 13, 2024
Stunning! - Simply stunning 3 hour tour of an amazing place. Didn’t really appreciate before going what it would be like, as photos don’t capture the size and splendour. Tour was guided by Mario who was so so knowledgable, enthusiastic and great company. His stories were informative as well as being very funny. Mike
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Larry_o
Jan 23, 2025
Good tour, but crowded - The tour and our guide were very nice, but the Vatican is very crowded basically at all times so do not expect to find it “slow”. We went in January thinking the locations would not be busy, and this was still very crowded. Also, there are quite a few locations with steps, and some are a considerable number of steps, so please keep that in mind. Due to the crowds, you move pretty quickly through the museums, and then you get some time to admire the Sistine Chapel (very packed in here) before going to the Basilica. At this point after a tour here, you are released and can continue to visit things and look on your own. Also, don’t forget to send yourself a postcard from the Vatican Post Office.
Review provided by Viator
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up to 12 guests
1 Adult
March 2025
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