Rome: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Basilica Tour

Our family had this excursion booked for the day we came off our cruise. On the way to the Rome, a citizen jumped on the train tracks and train services were canceled. We knew that we'd be late so we tried contacting the operator several times by phone and messages but they were never responded. They could have emailed us our tickets but their lack of response did not allow a solution.

Vatican Museum, , St. Peters, saw a
Preist confirmation ceremony in St. Peters! The incredible Sistine Chapel... the awe inspiring Beauty of all the artwork and sculpture 10 stars!!!!

The whole tour was excellent. Guide and environment were excellent. Only complaint was that there were too many people.

We expected crowds and the heat of the day but found it difficult to hear what the guide was saying. When you book a tour in English you expect to be able to understand the guide but with the surrounding noise it was impossible. Our best experience was after the tour when we went into Basilica and marvelled at St Peter’s Sq.

Laura did a great job maneuvering the crowds. She is very enthusiastic about her job. Great tour - and lots of good information. But too crowded. Questioning if not so many tours should be scheduled?

She was very attentive and knowledgeable throughout the whole tour. Laura Antonucci turned it into an amazing experience. Very educational and entertaining!

The tour, itself, was very cool. Glad we got to see the Vatican Museum, St. Peters Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. Our tour guide was less than passionate about the experience, abrupt, and seemed to be in a hurry to get us done with the experience.

Meticulously organized. The guide did a good job of gauging how much information to share to accommodate a varied group. I am an art history major and my teenager is, well, a teenager - and we both enjoyed it.

We booked this tour through Viator. Our prior Viator’s Colosseum tour was not good as you can read from my prior Colosseum review. This Viator Vatican tour on the other hand was far superior. When we got up in the morning there was a rumor that taxis and Uber would strike. We were able to Uber from our hotel to the Viator meeting area on the steps near the Vatican. Many tour guides and tourists were located here. We were able to locate Viator guides on the stone staircase. We were early so we had to wait for our tour to start.

Vatican City officially the Vatican City State is a landlocked sovereign country, within Rome, Italy. It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city-state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, the city-state's and worldwide Catholic Church government Holy See, and Roman Curia.

When our tour started we had an excellent tour guide Antonella, who guided us throughout the Vatican property which was quite large with many buildings. Antonella was very knowledgeable about the Vatican. I got along with Antonella, because my name Tony is the Italian male version, namely Antoni or Antonio.

We first visited the grounds and the museum, which was quite large. We had a bathroom break. There is a trove of iconic art and architecture here. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling. The Sistine Chapel was packed with visitors so we could only spend a few minutes inside the Chapel. After the Chapel we were lucky to have a chance to visit the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, which was scheduled to be closed for renovation. A giant bronze canopy at the center of St Peter's Basilica is getting its first major makeover in more than 260 years to restore its luster in time for Holy Year celebrations in 2025.

Saint Peter's Basilica, is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City. Construction started on April 18, 1506. Overall our tour of the Vatican was the highlight of our visit to Rome. Because of that I posted lots of pics from Vatican City. After we finished our tour we were looking for a local restaurant to enjoy a late lunch. More to come regarding our late lunch on the outskirts of the Vatican City.

Laura was amazing! She was knowledgeable, charismatic and patient with our group. The tour was well worth the money and we got to explore so many rooms! The Vatican, Sistin Chapel and Basilica all were just..WOW

We had a great experience from the people in the office to the tour guide ! However, there were way too many people and it was not an enjoyable experience on a Hot day. It should be illegal to have thousands of people at a time walk through that space

The tour guide was very informative. He took his time and made sure that everyone was enjoying the tour. I would definitely recommend this tour guide.

We arrived for our tour with City Wonders and they told us that our tour is cancelled because their tour guide called in saying he wouldn’t be there. Unimaginable that a tour company doesn’t have a back up plan for situations like this, just terrible.
To add insult to injury, it was up to us to call the company and make arrangements to seek a partial refund for the tour.
This is our one opportunity to see the Vatican and this company ruined it. Book with these people at your own risk.

The tour group was very large and chaotic, half of the time it took to get through the lines. the tour guide did not have all of our tickets printed which took additional time for us to get through.

Went to Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St Peter. At the end of Sistine Chapel they asked who wanted to proceed to St Peter or go back to Vatican Museum. We wanted to proceed to St Peter to see the Pieta. When we were outside waiting to go to St Peter we were informed that Pieta was not available for viewing. And as we exited we could not go back to Vatican Museum. They should have been informed that Pieta was not available before we exited--not after! We were very disappointed as we would have stayed in Vaticanuseum to see additional galleries

Run away from this place. I paid for a tour of the Vatican at 15:00 for 2 people. Totally price of 230 euros. I showed up at 14:45 and they said the tour already left at 14:30. Nobody informed us that the tour was leaving earlier and it wasn’t possible to find the group, which had already started. I was told I would be refunded, but I only received a fraction of the funds back (40% of the cost). Do yourself a favor and find another tour company.

The tour was canceled last minute and this is usually sold out.. No alternative was offered so in other words you could rebook at a significantly higher rate if available..horrendous experience…..