Completely worth the cost to avoid standing in a line that goes all the way from the museum entrance to St. Peters Square. Our knowledgeable guide added so much to our understanding of what we were looking at. Unfortunately, the tour did not include skipping the line into St. Peters; which was incredibly long on a Wednesday right after the Pope's audience.

The stop at the open air market shopping for lunch is fun. Bring some sort of backpack to carry your purchases. The bike ride goes around the entire canal; which I imagine on a nice sunny warm day would be wonderful. The tour does not skip the incredibly long line into the palace, nor does it include much of a view of Marie Antoinette's estate. It does include entrance to the gorgeous gardens. Even with the crushing crowds inside the palace on a Sunday afternoon , we're glad we saw it.