Tour Overview

This Private Vatican Tour with Gardens matches you with a Private Presto Guide who brings you through the maze of the Vatican City as you enter into to the Vatican Museums’ world renowned art collection, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.

First stop though, a relaxing Vatican City Open Air Bus visit of the Vatican Gardens!

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Private Vatican Tour

The Vatican City boasts a stellar roster of not only artists and Popes but also the beginnings of the Catholic Church’s state and religion.

You’ll have your Presto Guide all to yourself to visit the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museums, and Vatican Gardens.  Get personalized attention and all your questions answered (or sometimes not!)  by a master on the subject.

On this Private Vatican Tour get up and close and personal to the Vatican City by hopping on an open air bus to discover what’s behind the Vatican City walls.

Be among the very few who get to see the Vatican’s meticulous landscaping of the Vatican Gardens.  You’ll be in an open air, but covered bus which makes for a nice way to stay in the shade on a warm day.

Then meet your Presto Guide and treat your eyes to the masters Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini and others’ beautiful creations. Your tour will be sprinkled with the history of the Catholic Church, legends, myths, scandals, and secrets of the smallest country in the world, the Vatican City.

The Catholic Church has been collecting some of the most treasured art for centuries.  About 500 years ago, the Vatican Museums was founded with a discovery of a sculpture in a vineyard near Rome.  Within a week of finding the sculpture, it officially became the first art piece of the Vatican Museums.  Now it has expanded into 54 galleries filled with paintings, sculptures, and artifacts.

Inside the Vatican Museums, you’ll be surrounded by both ancient masterpieces such as the Belvedere Apollo, a Roman second century copy from a Greek bronze original possibly by Leochares (330-320 B.C.), and Renaissance masterpieces such as the Mass of Bolsena by Raphael.

Before silently revelling your senses inside the Sistine Chapel (there is no talking allowed inside this holy site), your Presto Guide will go through the symbolism depicted in Michelangelo’s fresco, the Sistine Chapel. Biblical Story of Creation, the Downfall of Humanity, and the Story of Noah, which Michelangelo depicted in his world-renowned frescos.

Find out which major events take place inside the Sistine Chapel.  Take a peek into the politics of the Vatican City’s art commissions and get to know artists in a fun way–through your Presto Guide’s favorite anecdotes.

Next stop, St. Peter’s Basilica!

Named after St. Peter, the first Pope and the modern day patron saint of Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica is an architectural masterpiece.  Inside the Basilica you’ll see Michelangelo’s masterpiece, his sculpture, the Pieta’, as well as many dedications to various Popes and Saints throughout history.

Architect Donato Bramante designed the Basilica with a precise symbolism, designed according to Byzantine tradition as a cube, representing the world, with four extending arms, representing the 4 directions of the world, and a dome above it, representing heaven.

Please note that the bus is not wheelchair accessible and children under age 6 are not permitted on the bus for safety reasons.

If you prefer, and if you’d like to have the unique opportunity to have an early breakfast in the Pinecone Courtyard of the Vatican Museums,  we also have our Private Vatican Tour and Breakfast ..