Age Limit on Scavi Tour

From what I understand, yes, they will turn the younger one away. We have a 16 year old and 2 12 year olds, and we're not doing the Scavi Tour for that reason.

Hello, totally ignorant here, what is the Scavi tour and why does it have an age limit?? That seems so odd.?

The scavi tour is a small group tour of the partially excavated space below st. peter's basilica. narrow tunnels, low clearance, dark, wet, and very sensitive geologically, i guess, which is why they don't want kids in there. i think the age limit is unnecessarily restrictive--we will have two adults with the 12 year old, but maybe they've had bad experiences with kids. still, 15 seems arbitrary and kind of ridiculous.

I can give you an example of why they have a minimum age. When you go down into the area of the excavations, the door is shut behind you. You need to stay with the group. You cannot leave. It is a very small area and you spend more than an hour in this small area. It definitely demands someone with a mature attention span.

On my tour, we had one teenager who claimed he was feeling sick. He was with his parents. Fortunately, our guide had another seminarian along who was being trained so he was able to leave us in the excavation area while he escorted the boy outside. Note that the parents stayed on the tour so I don't think they were too worried about the kid. Personally, I think the kid was just bored and didn't want to be there ... maybe he was claustrophobic. It was disruptive, but fortunately we weren't all made to leave. Age 15 may be somewhat arbitrary, but they have to set the age somewhere.

V. helpful info, thanks. I'm curious, how would you rate the tour in relation to your other experiences in Rome? I have had people tell me it was the highlight of their trip.

I thought the tour was fascinating. My tour was led by an American priest studying in Rome. In a nutshell, St Peters was built on the site where Peter was buried, but the exact location had long been forgotten. In 1939, a pope died and they had run out of room so needed to dig deeper for a burial spot. They came across some Roman ruins. They then began excavations. In 1968 they announced that they had found the bones of St. Peter. I've left out the details of what happened between 1939 and 1968, because that is the part of the story I found most intriguing and I don't want to spoil anything for you. I'm not Catholic, but I think this tour would appeal to anyone who is interested in history or archeology. It covers the history of the site going back to Roman times and the archeological clues they found while excavating. Enjoy the tour.

Laura, sorry , I don't agree, that could have happened to an adult just as easily. As for the parents not being worried, why would they be, a teenager is capable of waiting upstairs for his parents, he was just woozy most likely, or as you suggested possibly claustrophobic, I am a bit myself, so I can understand the young mans problem.,,, I also think the age limit is just plain silly, it should at least be something reasonable like no young children.

You have done a good job describing the draw backs to this tour though, I should think that information is eplained to anyone taking tour, so people like me can opt out. LOL

From the Vatican website:

Only those who are 15 years or age or older are permitted to make the visit. No exceptions whatsoever can be made.