Private Vatican Museums with Gardens & St. Peter´s Basilica

Begin with a 45-minute drive through the Vatican Gardens by open-top bus. Enjoy the multilingual audio guide narrating the history as fountains, sculpted lawns, and hidden corners of Vatican City pass by. There are no stops on this portion of the tour, so just settle into your seat and let the beauty of the gardens unfold before your eyes.

Your bus tour will lead you to the Vatican Museums, where your private guide takes over for a curated walk through the collection. This includes the Raphael Rooms, and arguably one of its most famous painted rooms, which is home to the "School of Athens" masterpiece - depicting the great philosophers of antiquity. Rather than wandering room by room on your own, you go directly to what matters, with context for each piece as you reach it.

Before reaching the museum's famed chapel - The Sistine Chapel - your guide covers everything you need to know, its ceiling, its altar wall, and the years spent painting both, since talking isn't permitted inside the actual chapel. Once you're enter, you can enjoy this amazing sight in silence with enough context to actually recognize what you're looking at.

The tour continues into St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, ending at one of the most recognized sculptures ever carved and the basilica's main altar beneath its bronze canopy.