Discovering The Vatican Museums & St. Peter’s Basilica with The Roman Guy

During our long weekend in Rome earlier this year, we took two tours with The Roman Guy; one was a personal tour of the Colosseum and the second was an early access tour of the Vatican Museums, which I'm going to cover in this post.

I had visited the Vatican Museums before on a trip to Rome many years ago but back then I didn't take a guided tour, nor did I pre-book meaning that I had to join the ridiculous winding queue to get in, which took a good few hours out of the day. Up to 25,000 people per day descend upon the Vatican City so a big draw point of The Roman Guy's tours is that they always tend to have a 'skip-the-queue' priority. Our particular tour met at 7:30am just opposite the main entrance to the museum ready for an 8am entry. The museums actually officially open at 9am but The Roman Guy's "privileged entrance" tour allows you access to the museums an hour before the general public so it's totally worth it!

After meeting the rest of our tour group and our guide, Jad, we joined the shorter  "privileged entrance" queue outside the museum entrance. The Roman Guy make sure that no tour group is more than 13 people, meaning that your tour is a lot more personal and you don't feel too lost in the crowd. Whilst waiting for the doors to open, our tour guide dished out some headphones so that we'd be able to hear his commentary throughout the tour and began to explain the initial plan. As soon as we got through security, we were to make a beeline straight for the Sistine Chapel in order to take advantage of our early entry. If you've ever visited the Sistine Chapel before, you'll know that when you enter you're expected to remain entirely silent as it's a place of worship so whilst in the queue, Jad took the moment to talk us through each part of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece to prepare us before we walked in.

Once our group passed through the airport-style security system, as promised Jad took the lead and power-walked through the museums towards the Sistine Chapel. I found myself marvelling at the beauty of the halls that we passed through but there was no time to pause as our we were on a mission to reach the Sistine Chapel before anyone else so that we could experience it whilst it was still empty. As promised when we stepped into the chapel, it was pretty much empty with only around 30 or so spectators admiring the stunning frescoes that adorn almost every surface. Compared to when I last visited the Sistine Chapel many years ago, this experience was far more breathtaking as there was enough space to take in all of its beauty, whereas when it's busy during public hours, it's so busy that it's difficult to even move, let alone take in the sheer detail of Michelangelo's masterpiece. We were given thirty minutes inside the chapel to get lost within the intricate and overwhelming frescoes before reconvening with the rest of the tour group to exit the chapel. 

Photos are strictly prohibited inside the Sistine Chapel but it was such a beautiful experience to be able to take it all in without being crammed into the chapel like sardines. It's one that I'll definitely cherish for the rest of my life.

After our time inside the chapel, we continued with the rest of our tour inside the Vatican museums, following Jad and weaving our way through the ever-growing crowds as the museum had opened to the rest of the public. To see almost everything within the Vatican Museums would take you a good few days but our express tour was a total of three and a half hours to catch the highlights. The Roman Guy do offer longer tours of The Vatican Museums for those who are keen to explore in more detail, including a full-day trip which includes a visit to the Pope's summer house. Having a tour guide lead us throughout the museum was so much easier than trying to navigate the winding hallways of the museums ourselves.

Our next stops within the museums were the Gallery of Candelabra, the Gallery of Tapestries, the Gallery of Maps, the Raphael Rooms and the Borgia Apartments. On each stop, Jad would stop and take the time to explain the origins of some of the artwork and history of each gallery and allow us time to mooch around ourselves. However, as time went on the museums began to fill up quickly and it soon become a chore for us to weave our way around people and it became more difficult to see some of the museum's collection because of the crowds. It dawned on me how lucky we were to be granted early access to the museum because by 10am, the museum's popular spots were starting to become overcrowded. Jad mentioned that The Vatican Museums do not have a limit on the number of people they let in , eg. the Colosseum has a strict limit of a 3000 capacity at any one time, so people pile into the museum constantly throughout the day. 

To exit the museums and move onto our tour of St. Peter's Basilica, we had to pass through the Sistine Chapel once more and the difference in the crowd was overwhelming. To exit, we had to squeeze between the packed swarms of people and it was then I realised that you could only really look up in the Sistine Chapel as it was impossible to admire the details across the walls due to the dense crowd just over an hour or so later.

Swiftly exiting the museum nearby to the Sistine Chapel, we followed Jad to the final stop on our tour, St. Peter's Basilica. On the tour you're given the option to spend some extra time in the museum but you'll forgo the guided tour through St. Peter's. We decided to stick with the group and head to St. Peter's as sticking with the tour group meant that we could skip-the-queue once more upon entry. There's nothing quite as satisfying as strolling into somewhere knowing you've avoided a good few wasted hours spent queuing in the boiling hot sun.

After simply strolling into St. Peter's without a care in the world, Jad took us on a brief tour around the ground floor the spectacular renaissance church, which is not only is it where the Pope presides many liturgies all year round but is one of the biggest churches in the world. It alone can accommodate up to 20,000 people and measures 190m in length and the central nave stands at 46m tall. For reference, if you look at the lettering on the golden panel in the above photo (top right), each letter is 2 metres tall!

During our tour around the church, we first stopped off at Michelangelo's La Pietà sculpture, which depicts the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Crowds had already gathered around the famous sculpture making it difficult to get a photo at this point. We spent around 30 minutes taking learning about St. Peter's with Jad's commentary before our tour came to its end. We had the option to stay on exploring the church by ourselves, which we decided to do for a little longer because after leaving there was no re-entry without joining the huge queue in St. Peter's square, which we certainly didn't fancy. We were also offered the choice to climb the 136m tall dome to the top of St. Peter's but decided to give it a miss on this particular day as our legs were already in agony from the days of walking the city. Climbing St Peter's isn't an easy feat, especially as the last few staircases are extremely steep and narrow, so although I was worried our legs couldn't take it, I knew it'd also be a struggle for James to make his way through the narrow passages as he is pretty tall.

Rome is a very tourist-heavy city meaning queues for hotspots like the Vatican museums and St. Peter's basilica are inevitable. Not only was our tour guide knowledgeable and throughly entertaining but being able to skip-the-queues and enter the museums before the rest of the general public made our experience all the more magical and I'd thoroughly recommend booking through The Roman Guy if you're ever visiting the eternal city.

The Roman Guy's "Privileged Entrance" Tour of the Vatican Museums & St. Peter's Basilica costs €89, which covers your entrance fees, and can be booked via their website here.

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Disclaimer: I was invited on a complimentary tour courtesy of The Roman Guy but all words are honest and my own.