It's Jubilee time in Rome
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This tour is guaranteed at max 6 people per group
Alert! Non-Refundable Entrance Fees Read more...

VIP Essential Rome Combo | Early Vatican & Colosseum Semi-Private Tour

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Group · 6 Max
9 hrs
Vatican
Refundable booking
rome in a day

Important Notice: Jubilee Year 2025
As part of the 2025 Jubilee celebrations, St. Peter’s Basilica may experience unexpected partial or complete closures. In the rare event that the Basilica cannot be visited, rest assured that your tour experience will remain exceptional. Your guide will seamlessly adapt the itinerary to include alternative highlights, ensuring the full duration and quality of your tour.

LivTours VIP Essential Rome Combo Semi-Private Tour brings together two of our most popular tours for the perfect day. Enjoy early entrance to the Sistine Chapel and visit restricted areas of the Colosseum!  

Early entrance to the Sistine Chapel allows you to enjoy this incredible space before the afternoon rush. When visiting the Colosseum, you’ll have priority access to the arena floor. Imagine walking right where gladiator fights used to take place—well that’s just what you will do with LivTours. This combo tour shows you Rome’s two most famous sites and it is a great way to make the most of your vacation time!

Proud to be an Accredited Tour Operator of the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo.

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  • Enjoy Rome's two most iconic sites on this VIP semi-private combo tour of 6 people
  • Be amongst the first visitors to enter the Sistine Chapel
  • Revel in LivTours' priority access to the Arena Floor of the Colosseum
  • Have an expert guide, exclusively dedicated to your tour, share the history of Rome
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Semi-Private tours and experiences are guaranteed six participants max.

Our prices always include tickets and reservations fees (no waiting in lines!)

Our tour guides and staff are selected experts and speak perfect English

Easy to book and prepay your tours with our secure payment system

Eco-sustainable tourism, designed to respect and support local culture, art and traditions

**All Colosseum tours require photo ID for all participants; plan to bring your passports on the day of your tour. Failure to show identification will result in the denial of entry to the site.**

Your LivTours VIP Essential Rome Combo Semi-Private Tour begins when you meet your guide early in the morning at the Vatican. You will enjoy the luxury of entering the Vatican Museums as soon as they open.  Imagine the soft morning light as you gaze up at Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel. As it is not possible for guides to talk inside the Sistine Chapel, your guide will use the time before entering the museum to give you the history and details of this great piece of art that almost did not get painted! Your expert guide will make sure you visit all the Vatican highlights from the Laocoon Priest of Troy to the Gallery of the Tapestries. You will continue your tour with a visit to St Peter’s Basilica, the largest Catholic church in the world, filled with beautiful pieces of art, including the only signed piece by Michelangelo. 

Before starting your afternoon tour of the ancient sites of Rome including the Colosseum, you will have time for a lunch break at your leisure. Please note that lunch is not included in the price of the tour. 

LivTours’ VIP Essential Rome Combo continues after your lunch break, by going back in time to ancient Rome! You will meet your local expert guide and visit the Colosseum while enjoying exclusive access to the Arena floor of the Colosseum. Walking out onto the arena floor makes the hubbub of the gladiator fights come into focus. Imagine the huge crowds and their shouts that would have accompanied them on the day. Your LivTours guide will explain the games and events of ancient Rome as you continue to visit this 2,000-year-old building.

After visiting the Colosseum it is time to head to higher ground as your guide walks with you up to the top of the Palatine Hill where Rome was said to have begun. Learn about the early origins of Rome as you walk through the ruins, explore and visit the temples from the Roman Empire, and the impressive Arch of Titus, ending up in front of the resting place of Julius Caesar.

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  • VIP early entrance Vatican tickets
  • Raphael rooms
  • Sistine chapel
  • Vatican museums highlights tour
  • St Peter's Basilica
  • St Peter's square
  • Free time for lunch
  • Priority Access Colosseum tickets
  • Exclusive Colosseum Gladiator Gate
  • Exclusive Colosseum Arena access
  • Palatine hill
  • Roman Forum
  • Julius Caesars temple
  • Arch of Titus
  • Fully guided experience
  • Small groups 6 people or less
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  • Please note: this tour is combination of two of our most popular tours, our Early Morning Vatican tour & Best of Colosseum tour, at a discounted rate. Each tour duration is 3 hours, giving you sufficient free time for a leisurely lunch and to make your way to the next meeting point. You will be informed of the exact start times and meeting points of each tour upon booking.
  • Important Notice Jubilee Year 2025: As part of the 2025 Jubilee celebrations, from December 24th, 2024 to January 6th, 2026, St. Peter’s Basilica may experience unexpected partial or complete closures. In the rare event that the Basilica cannot be visited, rest assured that your tour experience will remain exceptional. Your guide will seamlessly adapt the itinerary to include alternative highlights, ensuring the full duration and quality of your tour. Please note that, in accordance with our Terms & Conditions agreed upon at the time of booking, partial or full refunds cannot be issued due to Basilica closures.
  • 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.
  • There is no photography allowed inside the Sistine Chapel.
  • Large backpacks are not permitted in the museums.
  • In order to book this experience, you must be at least 2 participants.
  • Lunch is not included in the price of the tour.
  • The Colosseum can accommodate a maximum of 3.000 people at once. This could lead to delays in access to the site, even for pre-booked visitors. Please be on time!
  • **All Colosseum tours require photo ID for all participants; plan to bring your passports on the day of your tour. Failure to show identification will result in the denial of entry to the site.**
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LivTours’ group size of max 6 participants is and always has been based on sustainable travel, and we are proud to be at the forefront of change and innovation in the industry.  LivTours is committed to providing travelers with truly sustainable tours with the lowest possible environmental impact, all while supporting the local industries and people of each unique destination. To learn more about how you can actively support sustainable tourism  and how LivTours is contributing, click here.

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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.

 

 

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Non-Refundable Entrance Fees

Due to recent ticket policy changes imposed by the Colosseum, this tour cost is fully refundable minus the Colosseum entrance fees. Cancellations or modifications will exclude these entrance fees.

If you want to help us restore this tour to 100% refundable and modifiable, please sign the petition here (scroll down for English). Thank you!

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  • Early access Vatican tour

    If we could rate this higher than 5 stars we would, this was the best tour we have ever been on. The tour itself was awesome -- getting into the Vatican before the big crowds and being in a small group (only 6 people) made a huge difference. What made the tour the best was our guide, Massimo (aka Max). He was awesome -- we were actually stopped at least 6 times by other tour guides just to tell us that he was the best tour guide in Rome. This tour was worth every penny. We feel so fortunate that our one chance to see the Vatican was guided by Massimo. Also, the small group is so much nicer that being in a group with 20-40 people and listening thru a headset. We highly recommend this tour!!!

    - James and Marcie DiFranco
  • Vatican with family and Deborah

    We had a wonderful time learning so much about the art at Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters. Deborah made the experience exceptional.

    - Duane Flores
  • Exactly the tour we hoped it would be

    My colleagues and I booked this tour on the day off from our medical conference in Rome. Obviously we needed help to navigate the city in order to see as much as possible in one day. This tour was perfect for us. Our group consisted of the three of us and another couple so truly small group, as advertised. The morning was spent largely at the Vatican to see the highlights of the museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters basilica. Afterwards, we were met by a private driver and taken around the city to see many of the most important attractions. Our guide for the morning, Giulia, was simply awesome: warm and friendly and very well versed on the Vatican and Rome. The Colosseum and Roman Forum tour in the afternoon was with Davide who was also a super guide. Again, very friendly and knowledgeable and a joy to be with. The tour itself was awesome as we were able to go underneath the Colosseum and in other areas that aren't normally open to the general public. We learned so much on this tour and it was just exactly what we wanted as a thorough but comfortable introduction to the highlights of this amazing city.

    - Denise M.
  • Rome in a day

    This was the perfect tour for us since we had very limited time in Rome. We chose the small group tour but since there was only 1 other couple with us, we felt we were getting very intimate and personal attention. Even with another couple (making LivItaly's max of 6 in a group) we still would have been very pleased with the group size. We saw the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel before the crowds, skipped the line to get into the Basilica, were taken around in a nice van with driver to various other important sites like the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and more and then after lunch, to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We had 2 separate guides (one for morning, one for afternoon) and both were absolutely fantastic. Knowledgeable, passionate about the subject and extremely friendly. It was a really lovely day and we will definitely recommend this tour and this tour company to everyone we know.

    - Jane and John
  • This was the perfect tour for us!

    This was the perfect tour. We wanted to see as much of Rome as we could in the one day we had. This small group tour was precisely what we were looking for in that we had special early morning access into the Vatican museum so we could see that and the Sistine Chapel before the general public, we had a wonderful guided visit to the Basilica as well, saw several other major must-see sites in the city and then the Roman Forum and Colosseum with special entrance to areas not usually open to the public. It was VIP treatment with very comfortable transportation from place to place. The guides were all fantastic! We came away with a wonderful first impression of Rome and its history!! Great job, LivItaly. Thanks!

    - Renee SF
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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.

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