This once in a lifetime tour offers the most incredible Vatican experience imaginable. Enter the Vatican museums before dawn, with the Museums’ Key Master. Join him as he opens the still and silent galleries and breeze through Italy’s most prized gem in luxurious seclusion. For two unique and memorable hours, you’ll glide through the deserted Museums, seeing the most awe-inspiring spaces including the Raphael Rooms and – the height of exclusivity - an empty Sistine Chapel.
Travel with the Vatican’s Key Master as he opens up the Museums, unlocking doors and lighting long, empty galleries for you to explore. On this unprecedented tour, the most exclusive ever offered by the Vatican, your small group enjoy 2 hours inside the Vatican Museums completely alone. The highlight of your tour will be the opening of the Sistine Chapel, where you’ll enter completely alone and watch Michelangelo’s frescoes flicker to life. On this tour, you’ll have the whole Museum to yourself for a full two hours -- an experience usually reserved for the Key Master....and the Pope.
Accompanied by an Official Vatican Tour Guide, you’ll get up close with some of the finest artworks in the world, appreciating every detail of the gallery’s masterpieces. While opening the Sistine Chapel is an unforgettable experience, there’s so much more to the Vatican Museums. The Raphael Rooms are a particular highlight. Often more crowded than the Sistine Chapel, they’re home to a collection of frescoes just as revered by art historians. Visiting alone, you’ll have the space to appreciate them in all their majesty. During your experience, you’ll walk the galleries featured on Vatican tours, like the historic Gallery of the Maps & Gallery of the Tapestries.
Enter the still-closed Pinecone Courtyard and you can choose to stay inside the Museums to explore more on your own, or head off for your next adventure, passing the crowds who are only now getting inside the doors.
Unfortunately due to the nature of this tour it is not suitable for guests with mobility impairments, or for wheelchairs or strollers. Please contact the Guest Experience team at +39 068-596-0143 (Italy) or 888-683-8670 (USA) to make alternative arrangements.
Guide: English