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, 30 minutes
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
  • Easy-to-find meeting point for stress-free check-in
  • Entry to the Sistine Chapel
  • Guided tour with skip-the-line entry to St. Peter’s Basilica
  • Tickets included
  • Headsets for clear audio
  • Skip-the-line entry to the Vatican Museums
  • Small group experience
  • English-speaking licensed tour guide
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Gratuities
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
(5808 Ratings)
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627oranm
May 12, 2025
Great tour and great guide. Would recommend. - Great tour. Michael was a great host/guide. Lots of knowledge and a great sense of humour. We did move through the museum quite quickly, and I would have liked more time to move around freely in some of the areas, as I feel we missed out on quite a bit. But overall, it was a god experience, and I definitely enjoyed it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Melf_the_el
May 11, 2025
Did pretty well considering the circumstances... - Despite all the plan changes, we got a good solid tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's with a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and take-no-crap guide. Highlight of our trip for sure! Our tour had been scheduled for months, but the pope passing less than a week before we were headed to Rome made things tricky. To their credit, the tour company contacted us a few days after his death letting us know that the the Sistine Chapel would no longer be on the tour (bummer!) but that everything else would, and to confirm our interest. Obviously, cannot blame the tour company for that. They then called Mon afternoon before our Wed tour saying that it had been cancelled (turns out casket viewing was happening at that time), but they gave us an option to reschedule on a day that worked whew. The tour itself was fantastic. A group of 14, led through a vast museum packed with others. She did a great job of walking us through quickly through the less-salient parts, but giving us some time with the more famous rooms, paintings, and sculptures and letting us know ahead of time what they were and why they were important. She had a great personality, was a native speaker of English, and clearly loved her subject matter. The tour went on a little long, but I don't know how she could have done it any reasonably faster (especially since they were apparently asking groups to go the long way to slow them down.) She was also immensely helpful during the St. Peter's basilica part, talking to guards to find out how we could go through the Holy Door (since that is where they were funneling pilgrims, NOT tour groups) and, more importantly, how to see the Pieta since it was curtained off from the main entrance, but still something we were allowed to see. All things considered, "What a Life" did the best they could with the information they had (I can imagine how difficult this must've been for them) and we were honestly lucky to be able to still do the tour despite the many goings on at the Vatican and in St. Peter's in particular.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Gentri_s
Apr 26, 2025
Our guide Cincia was... - Our guide Cincia was amazing and very knowledgeable about the Vatican! We enjoyed our time very much!
Review provided by Viator
Y4011asfranciscoc
Apr 22, 2025
Vatican + Tour - Gabriel did an excellent job by explaining the Vatican + history in a few hours. We got the opportunity to skip a few lines. The stories of the art work were interesting. I highly recommend this tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dominic_c
Mar 28, 2025
Great Tour - Our tour with Valentina was perfect! She was very knowledgeable about the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica! Even had cool little insights that you would never know if it wasn't for being on her tour. The pace was just right because some tours can go way too long and drag on. Valentina would move at a good pace but when it came to the sistine chapel or other iconic spots she would stop and let you take it in as long as you felt you needed before moving on. Highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
Kloves
Feb 19, 2025
An excellent tour - This was my favourite tour! Our tour guide Jad was really friendly, funny and informative! He was a great tour guide and I really enjoyed listening the things he told us especially some of the things about the paintings in the Sistine chapel. The Vatican, Sistine chapel and the basilica are all stunning and this was made even better by our tour guide, with his knowledge explaining and showing us what we were looking at.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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
Kurt_l
May 19, 2025
Mario was our guide for... - Mario was our guide for this tour, and he was excellent. He was knowledgeable, witty and kept us on course. I highly recommend him. The tour itself was a mixed bag. There were so many people in the Vatican that it felt sort of like a cattle drive. Many rooms were so crowded we could barely push through, let alone taking time to enjoy the artwork in the room. It looks like the Vatican is more concerned about quantity of visitors rather than quality of the experience. While I would recommend this tour to gain insights you might otherwise not get, I would not visit the Vatican again. The crowds are overwhelming.
Review provided by Viator
From $111
up to 12 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).