Early morning VIP Vatican Tour

My husband and I took the semi private tour called My VaticanTour through City Wonders . It wasn't private. There were maybe 16 of us . The tour guide was very good and very pretty. I noticed some of the Vatican guards turn and look at her when she walked by . At the end she told us this was her first solo tour and we were amazed because she was very confident and well informed.

Our tour met at 810 which I thought it would be early enough to be be ahead of the crowds. It wasn't. The galleries of the museum were still fairly crowded . The Sistine chapel full but not the sardine experience I have heard about. My advice therefore is this: Take the earliest tour possible with whoever, because unless Pope Francis is leading the tour , you will have plenty of company around and it only gets worse.

Look into the Scavi tour if you really want to experience St Peters. That is the tour of the excavations under St Peters and limited to only 11 at a time

Enjoy your time in Rome

Jennifer

Walks of Italy offers their Pristine Sistine tour which meets at 7:15 and gets you into the Vatican at about 8:00 am. Their tour guides are very knowledgeable and and enjoyable. It covers the Vatican museums, Sistine chapel and St. Peter's basilica. Lots of good reviews here and on trip advisor. Our guide took us to the back of the museum first, and it was amazing that we saw the museums with hardly anyone else around.

I second Walks of Italy. We did the Pristine Sistine excellent tour and worth every penny. The Sistine chapel was not crowded at all neither was the museum which is great for pictures.

I third the two comments about Walks of Italy "Pristine Sistine" Tour. They offered a 10 percent discount to RS readers, probably still do. One other benefit of this tour is that you finish in St. Peter's at about mid-day, and have the whole rest of the day for other sites and experiences. By the way, it's not exactly a "VIP" tour, anybody can pay and participate.