Semi-Private Early Morning Vatican Tour Reviews

Exceptional Review of the Vatican with Giovanni

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (If there were 6 stars, I’d give them!) Our family recently had the pleasure of touring the Vatican with Giovanni T. from LivTours, and it was nothing short of exceptional. Giovanni’s deep knowledge of the Vatican’s history and art, combined with his witty humor, made the experience both educational and entertaining. He was especially wonderful with our kids, keeping them engaged and excited throughout the tour. One of the standout aspects of the tour was Giovanni’s expert navigation through the Vatican. Thanks to his skillful use of fast-track passages and his ability to go against the usual flow of traffic, it often felt like we had the place to ourselves—a rare and precious experience in such a busy location. The early morning semi-private tour was perfect for avoiding the afternoon heat, and we loved having the time to fully appreciate each room while listening to Giovanni’s captivating stories. The LivTours team, including Giovanni, were incredibly responsive to our questions and communicated effectively before, during, and after the tour, ensuring everything went smoothly. Having taken many tours across Italy, we can confidently say that Giovanni T. and LivTours have been the best by far. If you’re looking for a tour guide who knows how to make history come alive and can navigate the Vatican like a pro, look no further. Highly recommend! Thank you!!

Having a guide was great - a tad rushed in parts

This tour provides a great introduction to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Our guide, Patrizia, was delightful and eager to answer questions throughout. At times, the tour felt a bit rushed, but I certainly appreciated having a guide rather than exploring alone. Booking the earliest morning slot is highly recommended!

Fantastic tour

We had a semi private tour of the Vatican. Make sure to wear good shoes, it was more walking than I expected. But totally worth it.

Simply wonderful

We were very lucky on the tour to have Valeria as our guide. The tour was so incredible, so many things to see and learn and Valeria kept us wanting to know more and more as she’s so knowledgeable on the subject. In fact the three hours passed so quickly. We definitely recommend this tour. Thanks Valeria for being our wonderful guide.

Super awesome

We cannot recommend this tour enough. We didn’t see the 3 hours pass. Valeria our guide was very knowledgeable on the material and we learned a lot. Besides there’s so much to see and discover. We took some nice photos during this tour which will treasure forever. Thanks Valeria for being our wonderful guide.

Great tour - don’t skip!

This tour was incredible! Our tour guide was amazing and you could tell she truely loves giving this tour. We only had four in our group which was perfect.

Best tour I've ever had - thank you Massimo!

Massimo was an amazing tour guide. He made sure we were first in line. we took our time in the museum and he was sharing extremely interesting tidbits about art pieces that all the other groups just walked by. He was hilarious and made it a huge highlight of our trip

Small group early morning Vatican tour

We took this Early morning Vatican tour just prior to Easter. If I had another time of year option for a visit to the Vatican I’d definitely do it. We found the tour disappointing. First, St Peters Basilica was closed for a mass and the opening time post-mass was uncertain. That’s not the fault of LivTours but it would have been nice to know so the tour could be canceled or rescheduled. Also I’ve been fortunate enough to take 2 previous tours to the Vatican (one small group, one private) but I’ve NEVER encountered such crowds. It doesn’t really matter if you book early morning visit or small group or private if there are (for example) 50 other groups starting at the same time . We waited in line for approximately 30 minutes to get into the Vatican museums. Our guide Chiara did a nice job using the wait time to explain the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Each person received a color print of the ceiling so referring to the various parts was easy to see and understand. In our group there were young children and Chiara focused on making the tour appropriate and engaging for them. It’s not easy to have adults, teens and young children on the same tour. I think she did the best she could although I thought the teen in our group wasn’t as interacted with. Also the level of explanation wasn’t what the adults could have enjoyed but that would have lengthened the tour and probably caused boredom for the children. But again I emphasize how crowded the Vatican was. Hearing what she was saying (even with earbuds) was difficult. Something has changed with tour policies (either LivTours or the Vatican) the crowds for early entry and small group were unlike I’ve ever experienced. Chiara made the Raphael room an option (to keep the children engaged?) fortunately our group all agreed to go “ the long way” otherwise both the Basilica and Raphael rooms would have been missed. Chiara tried to make the tour successful. She’s friendly, knowledgeable and willing took photos of our family. My opinion is she was given a difficult tour at a challenging time of year.

Excellent Guide/Tour of Early Morning Vatican Private Tour

Ella was by far the most fantastic guide on our entire trip of Italy. She was extremely knowledgeable, personable, engaging and fun to be around - which was such a plus because we were with her for 3.5 hours. Oh, she was such fun! Our tour was the early morning Vatican private tour, which included the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. We also were so appreciative that Liv Tours was able to combine our family of 8 into one tour. Just made it that more special for all of us to be the only ones on our tour and have Ella as our guide. We loved the details she gave us about so many of the pieces she highlighted for us - and her interest in our family’s own Italian heritage (which we discussed in the Gallery of Maps) as we looked for where our family originated just made us feel like VIPs. Also loved that she was an archaeologist by training, as it just gave us so much more insight into what she told us. The book she used to explain specific art pieces to us inside and outside the museums/church buildings was also such a great guide that we bought one for ourselves after the tour. We can’t say enough good things about Ella and Liv Tours. If we had known about them before we booked our trip/tours, we would’ve made sure every single one that was possible was with Liv Tours. We were so pleased when we discovered that another tour we had booked for the Last Supper in Milan later on our trip just happened to be with Liv Tours; when one of our family’s other tour to Pompeii was cancelled, they were able to re-book it with Liv Tours, and they said it was an experience of a lifetime. We will be talking about it for years to come, and hopefully, if/when we get to return to Europe, we will be able to participate on their tours again. Thank you to Ella and Liv Tours for making this portion of our trip so wonderful and memorable!

Thank you Patrizia

We really enjoyed Patrizia on our tour this morning. Excellent work, she was aware that I had difficulty hearing her immediately and got me to move closer & asked the people behind to keep back. She shared so much history and information without it feeling like she was lecturing.. I enjoyed her and her tour very much and will happily recommend LivTours to everyone I know.