Express Early Morning Sistine Chapel Tour | Semi-Private

• Admire Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel, in the soft morning light
• Appreciate an intimate experience in a semi-private tour of 6 people
• Enjoy skip the line entry to the Vatican Museums
• Experience Raphael's frescoes in tranquility

Your LivTours guide will meet you and your semi-private group by the entrance to the Vatican Museums. Your tour will start with a taste of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s background and will tell you how a sculptor from Florence ended up being commissioned to paint a fresco for Pope Julius II, a notoriously difficult pope. Your guide will tell you stories of how Michelangelo considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter, and had little desire to paint what is now considered a Renaissance masterpiece – the Sistine Chapel.

Now on the move, your expert guide will take you on a brief tour of the Vatican galleries before entering into the Raphael Rooms. Thanks to this experience you will be able to get up close to Raphael frescoes, enjoy its beauty and appreciate the intimacy of his work. Next, the masterpiece: the Sistine Chapel.

Once inside the small chapel, fully enjoy the detailed intellectual and emotional depictions as the soft morning light seeps through the windows. Michelangelo chose some of the most prominent stories to tell from the Book of Genesis such as the famous The Flood, the Creation of Adam and The Fall. Looking straight ahead and you will see the stunning portrayal of The Last Judgement, where Christ is surrounded by sinners and believers. The Sistine Chapel covering over 8,000 square feet of the ceiling was never meant to be an ordinary fresco, but a religious and political statement of the times, leaving us with an incredibly intricate view of the Renaissance world.

After your Express Early Morning Sistine Chapel Tour is over and your guide has said ‘ciao!’ we recommend you head over to Saint Peter’s Basilica: one of the largest Christian churches in the world. Visit the Basilica at your own leisure. Take in the extraordinary 96-foot tall bronze canopy over the High Altar design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini which is used during papal mass. Don’t miss the pristine sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding Christ’s lifeless body in Michelangelo’s La Pietà.

• Early entry into the Vatican Museums
• Walk through Galleries
• Raphael Rooms
• Sistine Chapel

• Places of worship have strict dress code requirements for entry. All participants are required to have shoulders and knees covered (no tank tops or short dresses) to enter.
• Vatican management maintains the right to delay the opening of the Sistine Chapel for religious reasons, in this case the guide will modify the itinerary and extend your visit of the museums to ensure you make the most of your time before access to the Sistine Chapel is permitted.
• There is no photography is allowed inside the Sistine Chapel.
• Please be aware that the Sistine Chapel is a Holy Place and talking during your visit inside is strictly forbidden, therefore your guide will give you an explanation of the Sistine Chapel beforehand during your tour, in order to give you a comprehensive explanation before entering the chapel.
• Backpacks are not permitted in the Museum.
• Guests with wheelchair accessibility needs will find difficulty with this small group tour. In order to ensure a barrier-free tour with alternative routes, please book the private version of this tour.
•  Everyone in your group, regardless of age, needs a government issued ID to enter the Vatican Museums.

All LivTours Semi-Private Group Tours are limited to 6 guests per tour guide. Our commitment to maintaining our uniquely tiny group sizes can sometimes be a little tricky, mathematically speaking. For example, we want to ensure that traveling families and friends can tour together so on rare occasions we may add one or two guests in order to not split groups. On that same note, you may also find yourself on tour with less than six people! We thank you for your understanding and flexibility.

By selecting Choose Dates Later / Buy as Gift at booking, any tour can be purchased without fixed dates. This is the perfect option if you want to purchase your tour as a gift for a loved one, or if you are in the pre-planning phase of your vacation. After booking, you will receive a Travel Voucher Code and full instructions on how to schedule your tours when ready. Once your travel plans are confirmed, you can easily use the Travel Voucher Code on the LivTours website to formally schedule your tours. You can find out more here.