Private Vatican Night Tour: Museums and Sistine Chapel
What your day looks like
Explore the Vatican at night and walk through the corridor and the rooms of the papal apartments while outside is getting dark and add a touch of mystery to your Vatican tour. This is a tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Join our Vatican Night Tour and explore the Vatican with the best tour guides in the field. Skip-the-line entry fees are included in the price! A visit to the Vatican, the seat of the papacy and home to several world-famous Museums, is for many a highlight of their trip to Rome, the Eternal City. This small but powerful independent state located across the Tiber river from Roma’s historic center hosts the most important edifice of the Catholic Church, and several of the most important masterpieces of the art world. During this tour of Vatican City with, you will see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel! The richness of the pontiffs’ collection of art, sculpture, and objects so diverse as sarcophagi and even several mummies reflect the extent of the Vatican’s world dominance at its hight. Often, men of great taste and means, the popes amassed an impressive collection of unique artifacts. Some of them—such as The Laocoön Group—have been displayed in the Vatican in the same room since 1506. Adding to that, the rooms and even the corridors of the museums are worthy attractions in their own right. Visitors are granted access to The Papal apartments, adorned with frescoes by Raffaello and Michelangelo, the Hall of Maps, the Borgia Apartment. Spread throughout 12,000 rooms, the Vatican Museums’ unique art treasures span over 4000 years of history. Collected by generations of powerful pontiffs and cardinals they highlight a millennia of papal influence. From Raphael’s frescoes to the red porphyry sarcophagi made for the relatives of Emperor Constantine to the Laocoon Group, one of the most impressive examples of ancient sculpture, showing a priest and his two sons attacked by a sea serpent, the Vatican Museums offer a wealth of attractions. Among the other things, you will admire the impressive Belvedere Torso, a stunning first-century marble statue that has influenced Michelangelo as he depicted the Sistine Chapel, the Hall of Maps, Giulio Romano’s depiction of the battle of Ponte Milvio, and much more. During our tour of the Vatican, we will visit The Sistine Chapel, dreamed up by 33-year-old Michelangelo, whose iconic frescoes depicting The Last Judgment and The Creation of Adam are some of the most easily recognizable images in Western culture. The Sistine Chapel, named after Pope Sixtus IV (Sisto in Italian), the man who built it, represents one of the most accomplished examples of High Renaissance Art. Completed over four years by Michelangelo at the request of Pope Julius II, the frescoes, especially The Last Judgment and The Creation of Adam have secured a place in art books as well as in popular culture. That simple yet powerful gesture by which God, depicted for the first time as a muscular figure, gives life to Adam by extending his finger is today one of the most iconic images one can think of. With its paintings covering 12,000 sq ft (1,110 sq m), the Sistine Chapel, whose 500th anniversary was marked in 2012, is until today pope’s private chapel and has served as the sole location of papal elections since 1870.
The experience, in brief
- Visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with an expert guide
- Vatican Museums
- Bramante’s Belvedere courtyard with the Big Pine
- The Laocoön Sculpture
- The Hall of Tapestries
- The Hall of Maps
- The red Porphyry Sarcophagi of the family of Emperor Constantine
- Alexander Borgia's Bedroom
- The Belvedere Torso
- The Belvedere Courtyard with the famous bronze Pigna
- Raphael's Rooms
- The Sistine Chapel
- Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel
- Michelangelo's Last Judgment*
Your day, step by step
Rome
Sightseeing at Sistine Chapel.
Rome
Sightseeing at Vatican Museums.
Rome
Sightseeing at Laocoon and His Sons.
Rome
Sightseeing at Raphael Rooms.
Rome
Sightseeing at The Gallery of Maps.
What to know before booking
Not Included
Does not include St Peter's Basilica, which is closed at night. Transportation
What to Bring
You MUST bring your IDs in order to access the Vatican Museum. Please don't forget to wear comfortable shoe. Shoulders and Knees must be covered in order to enter the Sistine Chapel.
Restrictions
We suggest you not to bring large bags or backpacks with you: it is obligatory to deposit in the cloakroom suitcases, backpacks, and containers with dimensions larger than cm 40 x 35 x 15, and non-portable umbrellas.
Meeting & Pickup
We meet close to the Vatican, exact location provided at time of booking.
Planning Notes
Hotel pickup offered: No Confirmation: Manual By Business
What travelers are saying
Elisa was amazing! Totally worth the money! It was so beautiful and perfect to do at night, way less crowded.