Tours, sightseeing tours, activities & things to do | Viator.comPrivate Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
based on 21 reviews of Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
Read what other Viator.com travelers think about the Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums. What they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved, it's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable. She has a PHD and gave us so much information. The Sistine Chapel is one not to miss. I loved it!
Reviewed by: Laura S, United States of America, May 2009
I enjoyed the tour very much. The guide was knowledgeable, and there was no crowd.
Reviewed by: Dacheng L, United States of America, May 2009
Wow! This was the highlight of our trip! It was worth every penny and then some. We felt so special to be in the presence of such beauty with so few people. The tour guide was incredible. She knew so much and taught us much more than we ever expected. My children 8 and 10 years old were amazed by everything! It was a trip to remember! If you can avoid it, try not to bring a child in a stroller. There are a lot of stairs which made it difficult. But the tour was worth an inconvenience that my stroller posed.
Reviewed by: Lorre P, United States of America, April 2009
It was a great experience! We had an hour in the Sistine Chapel, with a group of 20. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and enhanced the experience.
Reviewed by: Kevin P, United States of America, April 2009
This was an excellent tour with a very smart and entertaining guide who spoke perfect English. I would highly recommend this experience to anyone. Keep in mind, there is silence in the Sistine Chapel even with tour guides during the day. This evening tour allowed not only everything to be explained by the guide but there were only 22 of us in the Chapel! Thank you for your great service.
Reviewed by: Stephen M, United States of America, April 2009
Being in the Sistine Chapel with just 17 other people instead of hundreds was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Vatican Museum staff were great too.
Reviewed by: Francis C, Netherlands, October 2008
I just revisited my travel photos from this tour and it reminded me how special this experience was. Although I'm not a fan of organised tours, I hate crowds and queuing even more. After various friends had mentioned that their experience of the Vatican and Sistine was weakened by the hordes of crowds and long lines, I decided that my best chance at enjoying the Vatican would be while nobody was there and when I didn't have to queue. The tour group I was in was small ? only a handful of us, including my friend and I. We met our guide at the Vatican entrance and right on time the huge back doors were opened and we were ushered in. As soon as we were inside, there was nobody there except the Vatican guards. In fact during our entire 2 hours at the Vatican and Sistine, we never crossed paths with any other visitors. We had a local guide who spoke with interest and affection about the history of the Vatican, various events within the Catholic Church, and the creation of the Sistine's ceilings and walls. Ahhhhhhh, even as I write this review, a smile is brought to my face. I can't explain how special it felt to have the guards unlocking each new door to each new room just for us. I try not to buy into the exclusivity factor, but I must admit that I felt quite smug knowing that groups this small are a rarity and that I was experiencing something that not many people have. The guide moved at a good pace, obviously this will be dependent on the guide you get, so being the camera junkie that I am I was able to set down my mini tripod and take some great pics. I know it's a fair bit of money to fork out but I definitely think it's worth it. Several months on, I feel less like I went on a tour and more like I had experienced a rare opportunity.
Reviewed by: T S, United Kingdom, August 2008
This tour was worth every penny. The guide was great and the lack of any crowd at all was worth the money.
Reviewed by: Sharyl G, United States of America, July 2008
Our private viewing of the Sistine Chapel was the highlight of our trip. Our guide was very knowledgeable, and because the group was small we were able to ask many questions. I highly recommend taking the tour.
Reviewed by: Patricia P, United States of America, July 2008
Excellent tour, only six people in all, including the guide. Very informative and worth the money. It was a completely new experience to be in the Vatican Museums without the other thousands of people, it made us feel very important and privileged. If you can afford it and you're passionate about the Vatican Museums, definitely treat yourself!
Reviewed by: Dora H, United Kingdom, June 2008
This is an experience difficult to put in words! To see the Vatican Museum, and more importantly, the Sistine Chapel, in a small group without the crowds and pushing with a knowledgeable guide is wonderful. It really puts things in perspective, and, best of all, we were allowed some private time thereafter to soak in the Chapel. We really had a chance to understand and appreciate his Vision; it is a mind blowing experience. This is the only way to see, feel, and experience the Sistine Chapel.
Reviewed by: Armin W, India, June 2008
As the big bronze doors of the Vatican slammed behind our shoulders, our small group fell silent. We were in the Vatican lobby, having passed through security, and sped towards our destination. I had chosen for us in the next two hours the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. I thought that 45 minutes in the presence of Raphael, his Church Fathers, philosophers and Poets, Popes and Saints and the splendid 16-century Vatican inhabitants would hardly be enough; while for the Cappella Magna, the real name for the Sistine, 'a life is not enough'.
And our journey started, through the lonely round staircase, up the windows on the Cortile del Belvedere, along the corridors of the maps and the candelabra, through the sarcophagi of Helena and Costanza, mother and daughter of Emperor Costantine, buried in those red porhyri beds, smooth, vast, imperial. It started feeling very strange to move on, so few, through those famous museum rooms, so crowded by day, so silent in the middle of the evening: with respect we all started whispering!
And suddenly there we were through the Papal apartments, with frescoes all over the walls of fierce battles outside Rome, by sea and land when Popes and Gauls met and stood their ground.
The guards started leading us again through the dark corridors and having descended some steps and passed under a small side door, we suddenly were through the Cappella Magna, or la Cappella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) -- the Pope's private chapel. I was ready to start describing the magnificent 15th-century frescoes around the walls by the Umbrian and Florentine School, by Perugino and Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, and then all of our group looked up, one could not help it. And we almost froze.
There Michelangelo's forms were unfolding on that magical suspended ceiling, with an energy and vitality almost unsurpassed by anything we had seen. I have been in the Sistine many times, but never without people all around and this time, with so few people, I finally understood. The Sistine was painted by Michelangelo for a small crowd of particularly fortunate people, by those people that deserving or undeserving are meant to have a special communication with God. A small and unique crowd, the Cappella Pontificia, and in that silence I felt that our whispers were brought by Michelangelo straight to God, as he hovered above us, moving from one act of creation to the next. I explained what I could for what seemed a long time, perhaps half an hour but Michelangelo was doing my job, he was announcing loud and clear the most beautiful story of creation ever told.
We looked at the stories around the walls by the earlier painters and the elegance of their proportions and united voice in recounting the life of Moses and Jesus were not missed. We looked at the Universal Judgment and again with Michelangelo we tried to find a little place, by God, not too far in the right corner, perhaps by Michelangelo where his image stays suspended and then we could not say anymore. We all set on the benches and looked up for the remaining time in silence, suspended.
The guide was very good.
Reviewed by: Bertil E, Sweden, April 2008
The nighttime tour of the Vatican was an outstanding experience, worth every penny we paid. The tour director was so knowledgeable and interested in her subject. She truly loved art history and made the viewing of the Sistine Chapel very special. All the arrangements went smoothly and we enjoyed it very much. I can't think of anything that could make the visit better except more time to see the Vatican treasures in the other rooms!
Reviewed by: Mary M, United States of America, November 2007
Our private tour through the Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight of our trip to Italy. When we first went by the Vatican, the lines waiting to get in were literally almost a mile long. There were fewer than 20 of us on this tour and the guide was marvelous. She knew so much about the history and the art itself that I never would have known. And the guide was so involved in the subject matter, she made it a very emotional experience for all of us. We ended up spending about an hour in the Sistine Chapel itself which never could have happened without the tour. I would definitely do this again. It's well worth the money.
Reviewed by: Robert Z, United States of America, October 2007
