*👉🏻 Best Tours & Experiences in Rome:* ✝ Early Entry to Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter's Basilica - gyg.me/r2MzOCHD ✝ Pristine Sistine™ Early Entrance Small Group Vatican Tour -tinyurl.com/SistineWalksOfItaly ✝ Vatican Breakfast: Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Tour - gyg.me/vqdVILrI ✝ Vatican Key Master Tour - tinyurl.com/vatican-key-master ✝Rome in a Day Tour: Including Vatican, Colosseum & Historical Center - tinyurl.com/ye3ey4hh 🏚A Walk in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo - tinyurl.com/yckxvyme ✝Vatican Small Group Morning Tour with Secret Room Access - gyg.me/Y6R3EEab ✝Vatican Museums, Bramante Staircase, Niccoline and Sistine Chapels Private Tour - tinyurl.com/u2pxhcba ✝Private Vatican VIP After-Hours: Exclusive Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel - tinyurl.com/bdz3st4y 🛌 FIND ACCOMMODATIONS NEAR THE VATICAN booking.stay22.com/romewise/rSqmthyI7I 📕 Grab your eBook, 'Brief History of the Vatican' and discover the fascinating history of the holiest place in the Catholic world! - tinyurl.com/ycszycxd
@@Realhawker Unfortunately, the Vatican Museums have not added that link back to their site, but I've been told that if you e-mail them, they can help get you this tour. I had it on good authority the tour would continue in 2024, but since they updated their site so far this year, I have not yet seen that tour reapper. I will keep hoping
Thanks again for your suggestions...we selected the "Walks" Complete Vatican Tour With Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's in early Dec in the am and it was very good. There were still crowds, but our "skip the line" ticket made it simple with a few minutes to go through security. Our guide was great and our tour group was only 8 people in size (it could have been as much as 20). At the end of the tour we bought €8 tickets to climb the dome. It was a breezy but excellent day. If we were to go back we'd try the key tour you suggested.
Were you able to use the quick access entrance to the Basilica from the Sistine Chapel and not have to go all the way around to the main Basilica entrance (and wait in security line again)? I am looking at this same tour!
@@LindaM-z5c I believe so. Someone would need to describe the path. We came through a doorway to a long, sloped, descending stairs (can't recall what the guide said it was called) and didn't go through security a second time.
That's so great! I am really glad to hear you had a good tour with Walks. They are one of my favorite tour companies. Sounds like you had a great visit! I hope you will get to try the key master tour next time!
Yes, that is the shortcut from the Sistine Chapel to Saint Peter's Basilica which you can only take when you are on a guided tour that specifically includes this shortcut. The Vatican Museums do not offer any tours with this shortcut so you have to book it with an outside tour company such as Walks of Italy.
I toured the Museums with people from my hometown and I hated the Vatican Tour Guide. He talked to us for an hour outside in the courtyard and it was FREEZING! Then I kept losing him and my group inside! He would take only a small group of people with him and talk to them, leaving the rest of us out of the party, wondering where he was, looking for him and looking for each other. After the Sistine chapel he came and got us and brought us to a door that led outside someplace where there was nothing around. No gift shop, no winding staircase. My friends walked back to their bus and I walked home. A bummer.
Oh gosh that's really awful! That's what I mean - sometimes, you can get the bad luck to be assigned a guide who is just not gifted at making the tour enjoyable. But I have had excellent guides through the Vatican Museums so the experience can also be really good. I'm sorry you had such a terrible time.
Hi Mam, I have this in my package. I believe I need to buy one separate tour for museum as well. 1. Guided tour 2. Entrance to St. Peter’s Dome, St. Peter’s Basilica, underground crypts and pope’s tombs 3. Headsets where appropriate, so you can always hear your guide
I love your videos! They are so helpful, so thank you! I think it worth mentioning that I clicked on some of the tour options, and they were $1,000-$5,400 per person. Although this may be a bucket list item for some individuals or even couples, it is well outside what most folks may want to spend, and certainly not something my family of six would spend. I was expecting the tours to be over $100 each, but certainly not in the thousands.
Thank you so much for watching my video and for your kind comments. Most of the tours I link to are in the "normal" price range of under 200$ per person. The super exclusive tours which include the Key Master tour (20 people inside the museums) and the after-hours tour are indeed expensive because the Vatican Museums charge a lot for that exclusivity. I link mostly to "regularly-priced" tours because I think that is where most people would like to book and still have a great experience. I also link to the super exclusive tours in case someone wants to splurge.
Thank you so much for the reply! I think I only clicked on the two "exclusive" tours - lol! I will check all of them out now. Thank your for clarifying! You are very kind to link to all of them, both "regularly-priced" and "exclusive!" Thanks again! We are coming in 2025, so I will definitely continue watching every video you make!
@@susanshuffield8628 My pleasure! I wanted to clarify because I am well aware that the exclusive tours are out of reach for a lot of people, but I really do think some of the other tours I recommend are excellent and still offer a great experience! I hope you have a wonderful visit in 2025!
Thank you so much!!! Everything you share is very helpful and the way you present them is so friendly and honest! I am grateful I have found you❤. I am visiti Rome on the 14th of November and looking forward to seeing all that you mention!!! I would like to ask how much earlier, of my time slot, ( 11.30) should I be at the Vatican museum? I booked my ticket yesterday, no guide, just audio. And also , what time does Saint Peter close? Thank you.
Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad you enjoy my videos and find them helpful! You should be at the Vatican Museums about half an hour before your ticket time. Give yourself time to get through security (5-10 minutes), go to the restroom, grab some water, and make your way inside. You have about 15 minutes' leeway on either side of your entry time. Saint Peter's basilica closes at 6:30 pm in November, but they start to shoo people out a little bit prior to that. Here is the official website of Saint Peter's Basilica: www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/info-and-opening-hours.html
Hello, thank you for all your postings and videos. The same here as in on RU-vid. I just heard something about the Vatican Museum selling all availability for their tickets until the end of the year, and they’re going fast. Do you know any thing about this. Can you post, something about it on here or on RU-vid. Thank you and keep posting the great insights to Italy and Rome.
Yes for some inexplicable reason, the Vatican Museums out of the blue opened availability for individual entry tickets through the end of 2024, as opposed to only 60 days out. They are continuously adding availability so if you don't see tickets for the dates you want, keep checking back. Tours of the Vatican Museums through the Vatican Museums website are still only available 60 days in advance (for now.)
I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the Vatican Museum and had the opportunity to walk on the original Bramante staircase. Our guide was very knowledgeable! Only downside of our tour was that an "instagrammer" decided to stray off to take her IG photos. The group spent a half hour looking for her. We couldn't continue the tour until she was found. Felt bad for our guide as she is responsible for everyone. Plus...our guide was pickpocketed!!
@scottybz5549 it was a guided tour through Trafalgar last April. Our group of eight persons were the only ones on the stairs. Entry is through a guarded doorway. The views from top were amazing!
Thank you for sharing your experience of visiting the Bramante staircase! It is indeed one of the most special places to visit inside the Vatican Museums. I can feel Michelangelo there, walking up and down them on his way to paint the Sistine Chapel. I am really shocked at that person disrupting your whole tour - pretty selfish of her especially when other people were on the tour, not to mention unfair to the guide. And wow, a guide being pickpocketed! That's just awful. I hope you otherwise had a wonderful time!!
I love your videos! I have a question - I have found conflicting information about the quick access passage from the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica. Is it reopened for regular use (with a tour) again after COVID?
Thanks so much! Everything is open normally post-Covid. The latest news about the shortcut from the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica is that it IS available but ONLY when you book a tour with a third-party tour company- Also you have to make sure that the basilica is included in the tour and that it's not going on a Wednesday when there is the Papal Audience. You can find out more here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JfBlqsU91Pc.html
Is there a way to see the real Bramante stairs with a tour that costs more like 100-200 euro pp? Seems like it is either extreme VIP or difficult to find. Thanks! Love your videos :)
I don't think so. First of all, a visit to the staircase is sold via the Vatican Museums website as a "special visit" and it costs a lot - I think over 300 Euros just for the guide, let alone the tickets. It would be nice if they made it a bit easier but it is actually not a huge space and they can't offer visits to a lot of people each day, so keeping it expensive helps limit the number of people who go. Thanks for watching my videos - glad you enjoy them!
Nice video. Do you know if there is a tour available which allows one to go from Castel Sant Angelo to the Vatican through Passetto di Borgo? I once saw a video where people were doing this although I think they were only allowed to go until they reached a closed door before the Vatican.
Thank you! Yes, some years ago, Castel Sant'Angelo offered tours that included their "secret rooms" and the Passetto. Both have long since been closed to the public, even before Covid. Apparently this is due to "renovations". I hope they will reopen in time for the Jubilee in 2025. The tour is excellent. We did it at night so it was even more suggestive. The secret rooms are mostly in the lower levels and include prison rooms, food storage facilities, and even the pope's toilet, designed by Raphael. The Passetto is actually mostly above ground. It takes you fairly close to the OUTSIDE of Bernini's colonnade where you can see the cupola of Saint Peter's basilica, but that's about as close as you get to the basilica itself. Of course, the Passetto once led all the way into the Vatican, but today if you do this tour, it will stop some time before it, as Castel Sant'Angelo is an Italian state museum, and the Vatican is completely separate. There would have to be a whole different level of security to allow the Passetto to go all the way into the Vatican so the tour stops just outside it.
Yes, we offer trip planning as a paid service. If you are interested in knowing more (no obligation), you can start by filling this out so we can get an idea what you need. We will then come back to you with an offer of our services. www.romewise.com/italy-trip-planning-services.html
when in doubt, follow Elyssa advice. We did a 6 couple college reunion in Tuscany/Rome. We paid a college professor $400 for private tour. I am expert in church history and one couple devout Catholic. This tour guy bashed the RC Church to the point where I was also unhappy. Moral: listen to Elyssa
Thank you so much as always! You are very kind. Wow that's really awful that you paid so much for a tour that was so disappointing. But again, thank you for always supporting me and my work! I am very grateful to you!
Is there a tour that includes the papal audience? Or should I just purchase a tour after the papal audience? I am confused because they said the St. Peter’s Basilica is closed during Papal audience?
You can book the papal Audience as its own tour (please note you can attend the Papal Audience for free - this tour helps you get tickets, find your way to your seats, and comes with some info and background about the Vatican for a more complete experience): www.viator.com/Rome-tourism/d511-r2068220222-s41495071?pid=P00038436&mcid=42383&medium=link&campaign=yt-top3-vatican-tours But there is no Vatican museums tour that also includes the Papal audience. Yes, it's correct that St. Peter's basilica is closed during the Papal audience. The Vatican Museums is a completely separate entity from Saint Peter's Basilica. So the museums are open during the Papal audience while the basilica is not.
@@Romewise thank you so much for your recommendation and giving me great advice. Keep uploading videos since I am going to Rome and Florence next month. ☺️
I took one of the early morning tours this month. It started at 6:45 am. There was almost no one there. My group was about 9 people and there was another group I saw with about the same number of people. I didn’t see anyone else except the guards. It was amazing. Also, when we were in the Sistine Chapel and we didn’t have that guy shushing everyone.
Love your insight on all of your videos! We are traveling to Rome for the first time in 2024 and I've been looking for the Prime experience tickets through Vatican Museums website, but they seem to be no longer available? I have checked on different dates and the only bookable options are guided tours. Has anything changed recently? I appreciate your knowledge and insight.
Unfortunately, since I filmed this, the Vatican Museums stopped offering the Extra Time tour. Several reliable sources had confirmed they would be keeping it but sadly, they did not. You might find this helpful: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zALra-6G5JY.html
The tour is called the Key Master tour. There is a link in the description. It's not offered every day so you should select the day it's available and work your schedule around that.
Hi! I love your videos and have been following for some while. I’m finally visiting very soon but was wondering how are things going with the whole war that’s going on near there? Is it safe?
Thanks so much for watching! Events around the world can make travel a bit of a question mark. Here in Italy, there is nothing that makes me personally feel unsafe. We have had some protests (protests are very often part of life in Italy, whether about labor, politics, world events, etc.), but nothing more than that. Rome is the capital and full of embassies and government buildings, along with many important historical sites and landmarks. We have a very strong security presence here (always) in the form of police, carabinieri, and the military who guard sensitive areas and buildings. Everyone must make their own decision about how they feel about traveling, so this is up to you.
Question, Vatican: Early Entry to Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter's 3.5 hours Skip the line Small group size? & Rome: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Basilica Tour, group size? I am looking at these 2. Thank you
It depends who you are booking with. In 2024, no group may exceed 20 participants (besides the guide). Different companies, however, have different definitions of what a "small group" consists of.
Thank you so much! I would love a tour, but unfortunately im visiting on christmas, literally. So the only day i have to visit is the 24 of december, the guided tour on the official site is sold out and no tours are available for that day (for obvious reasons). Im counting on the audio guide. i'm fortunate that the vatican decided to move the free day from the 31 to the 24, otherwise i wouldn't be able to go. but if I go again I would like to do the key master tour.
Thanks for watching. Yes, it's a bit difficult to see the Vatican, let alone tour the museums, when you have such limited time, and when the time you are here is Christmas Eve. They likely don't do tours that day as the museums and basilica close early. I hope you will get to the enjoy the museums, regardless...and maybe one day come back and try the Key Master tour! Have a great visit to Rome!
I booked a tour though the vatican website,(Hidden vatican museums - bramante staircase and chapel of nicholas V) is it possible to visit the Basilica through the tour guide entrance?
I know it seems strange but the answer is no, you can't. This is because the Vatican Museums are managed completely separately than Saint Peter's Basilica - they are totally separate entities. The ONLY way to get that shortcut is with a guide, but a guide from an OUTSIDE tour company. But you will LOVE the Bramante Staircase and Chapel of Nicholas V! Enjoy!
Good afternoon Ms Elyssa Most GRATEFUL 💐 terrific vlog as always ..beside GREAT and REAL hands on info & knowledgeable advise 🤗🥳🤗 Your kind, pleasant, open friendly SPIRIT 🕊👩🏼🦳🕊 comes thru ✅ Take care & abundant blessings 🎉
Hello Lili and thank you once again for your lovely and kind comments. I am very grateful to you for following me and for letting me know you enjoy my content!
I have always found it better to just book the standard tickets and to tour at our own pace, at times with an audioguide. Escorted tours go at the pace of the slowest or latest, and don’t allow any flexibility to dwell on something found personally interesting. Also, people play with their phones all the time.
Yes for many people, this is the way to go. You get to spend as much time as you like and you can linger over whatever piece of art you care to study more. But I do recommend a tour for first time visitors, because the museums are so vast and there is so much to see. It can be overwhelming and if the guide is good, they can make the visit more interesting and enjoyable.
