For all you early birds out there, our Early Morning Vatican Tour is the best way to start your day in the Eternal City. Our early morning Vatican tour offers the perfect environment in which to admire the Sistine Chapel and the artworks of the Museums, giving you the space to appreciate their beauty and comprehend their meaning.
Highlights
Hidden Gems
- The Ancient Sculpture Galleries
- The Hall of Maps
- The Tapestries Gallery
Tour Includes
- Early morning visit to the Vatican Museums
- Ticket and reservation fees for the museums
- Expert, fluent English-speaking guide
- Headsets (for groups of 5 or more)
Please Note
- For reservations made less than 72 hours in advance, your tour will end in the Vatican Museums as we cannot guarantee skip the line tickets into St Peter's Basilica.
- Please note that the Wednesday morning tour will not visit St. Peter's Basilica, as the church is closed for the weekly Papal Audience at this time. The tour will run as normal, with the extra time spent exploring the Vatican Museums in more detail.
Create Your Custom Journey
Our dedicated team is here to help you design the perfect trip. We’re happy to assist every step of the way.
We’ve Got You Covered!
Can’t make your trip? Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund, minus any ticket costs.
ITINERARY
What To Expect On Your Tour
The Vatican Museums
Explore the Vatican Museums in the early morning
As an accredited tour company with the Museums, our Vatican tours provide skip-the-line tickets for all our clients, providing you with the most convenient morning visit to admire Michelangelo’s awe-inspiring frescoes. Our early morning Vatican tour offers the perfect environment in which to admire the Sistine Chapel and the artworks of the Museums, giving you the space to appreciate their beauty and comprehend their meaning.
Exploring the Vatican with an expert guide in a small group will help you to visualize the cultural context that gave birth to these incredible artistic masterpieces – you’ll learn about the ambitious artists, princes, merchants and bankers who created a new world of spectacular cities studded with elegant palaces and magnificent churches. Visiting the Vatican you’ll understand why the Renaissance was one of the most important periods in human history, an amazing time when the flowering of the arts was accompanied by the evolution of science – together laying the foundations for our modern world.
The Sistine Chapel
Meet the genius of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel
Whoever sees the Sistine Chapel through the eyes of Michelangelo, whoever reads in it his thoughts and sentiments, encounters a genius. Who he was, how he lived and what he thought are the main themes of our visit. Our guides will bring to life the great building projects of the Italian Renaissance and together we will relive the environment of the Papal court in Rome in which Michelangelo created his masterpieces. The figures of Jonah, Adam, Eve, Noah and thousands of others on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and in the Last Judgment reflect the profound ideas of Michelangelo – you’ll be able to appreciate what they say, and learn how these frescoes redefined not only art, but the way in which we look at the world.
The Raphael Rooms
Explore the courts of the Italian Renaissance in the Raphael Rooms
This was a period of overwhelming enthusiasm and of amazing innovation. The men of the Renaissance didn’t merely dream of changing the world – they really revolutionized it. The printing press, the geographic maps with which Columbus reached the Americas, modern science, architecture, art and the sense of beauty (a concept often demonized in the Middle Ages), all these were their creations. The frescoes of the Raphael rooms perfectly depict the world of the contemporary courts that governed the course of this new world and where the great geniuses of the age called home.
The cultured conversations fueled by the wine of sumptuous banquets, the statues brought to light by a frenzied passion for excavations, new fashions, and above all new ways of thinking and living, are marvelously recreated by Raphael with the perfect touch of his graceful brush. This is an experience that we will have the opportunity to relive in the flesh on our Vatican group tours. Indeed, there is an entire world to discover here, a world of which we ourselves are the children.
Treasures of the Vatican Collections
Get up close to amazing masterpieces on our Vatican Museums tour
Some of the most important works that we will discover, such as timeless Greek masterpieces like the Laocoon, the Belvedere Torso and the Apollo Belvedere, were excavated at the time of Michelangelo and Raphael after being lost for centuries. They studied and admired them in the same beautiful spaces where they are preserved today. This is what makes the Vatican Museums so special and unique in the world: their walls incorporate the history of the Renaissance.
The artworks the great masters created are the fruit of their careful study. We will walk through the Vatican Museums stopping by the Pinecone courtyard, the Belvedere courtyard, the tapestry galleries and many classic statues retracing the experience of Raphael and Michelangelo centuries ago. Discovering a meaningful selection of masterpieces with our knowledgeable guide, you will appreciate the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel in their original context.
St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter’s Basilica Self-Exploration
From the Sistine Chapel, your guide will escort you to St. Peter’s Basilica (except on Wednesdays), where you can enter on your own accord, without having to wait in line.
After exiting the Sistine Chapel, you will have an expedited escort directly to the entrance of St Peter’s Basilica. Here you will be able to enter on your own accord. Your guide will explain what you can visit inside the Basilica on the walk to the entrance.
The Basilica of St.Peter’s may be subject to unscheduled closings and late openings for religious ceremonies. Because these are often last-minute for security reasons, we do not have time to notify our guests. We will provide you with a complete experience by exploring the Vatican Museums in more detail. Therefore, we will not provide any refunds.
Create Your Custom Journey
Our dedicated team is here to help you design the perfect trip. We’re happy to assist every step of the way.
What Our Guests Are Saying
Guests Reviews
Felt a little rushed
very knowledgeable. Lots to see lots of walking
felt rushed. Especially at the end at basilica
guide spoke fast. Lots of steps
A must do in rome
this was a not miss for rome. Even though i wish it had been less crowded and yes, i could have skipped the unbelievably crowded sistine chapel, the art alone was worth seeing and allesandro, our guide, made everything come alive. He was very thorough and knowledgeable. We appreciated how he understood the reformation and talked about its influence on catholicism and christianity as a whole. St. Peter’s was incredible and i especially liked how allesandro explained the meaning of bernini’s impressive, monumental sculpture of pope alexander vii. I definitely recommend through eternity tours!
Highly recommended!
Erica was so knowledgeable and fun. I was very impressed by her background and expertise! The early morning tour was the way to go. We were one of the first groups to enter. The crowds were not too overwhelming, and i could tell it was getting more crowded by the time we left.
September visit to the vatican and st. Peter’s with laura
laura was our guide and she was excellent – so smart, so engaging. It was clear that she had a super thorough knowledge of the vatican and st. Peter’s – she knew exactly where to find a quiet spot to stop in order to point out something beautiful or interesting, to share a story or an interesting fact. The 3+ hours flew by – loved every minute – we took away a much better appreciation for the art and the history than if we had navigated it all by ourselves. Thank you laura!
I’m loved our tour – fascinating morning 👍
we had a wonderful tour with cinzia visiting the vatican museums, sistine chapel and st peter’s. Cinzia was so knowledgable and a pleasure to spend the morning with. Her humour and insights were fantastic – we learnt so much. Communication before the tour and on the day was excellent. Would definitely recommend taking a refillable drink bottle and wearing comfy shoes – we were exhausted at the end!
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