Making our European plans for fall of 2024 and I thought I was all set on an independent trip to Venice (4 nts), Padua (3 nts), Bologna (3 nts), and Florence (4 nts). This is really a first trip to Italy for us, my first trip was 40 years ago and very brief and my husband has never been. We love food, art, architecture and history and lots of wandering.
We have not yet taken a Road Scholar tour, but have read good things from several of the forum folks. We are signed up for our first one to Central Mexico this January. So I was exploring the Road Scholar website and saw the Italian Extravaganza; Rome, Florence & Venice at their finest for 12 days that includes a private visit to the Sistine Chapel after hours!!! Well that about sold me right there because I have been around this forum long enough to know that visiting that attraction can be miserable with the crowds.
Please help me decide!
Is there such a thing as a private visit of the Sistine Chapel if we did an independent trip to Rome? One of the pluses on the independent trip is my husband tends to like smaller towns and hates crowds. We would probably skip Rome if we did the independent trip for this first visit, but, we do plan to go back. Let me know your thoughts.
Posted by
3307 posts
I think I would love to take that tour! I would base my decision on the size of the Road Scholar tour group - if it was over 20, I would travel independently and shell out big bucks for the private after hours Vatican/Sistine Chapel tour.
Posted by
Chicago, IL, USA
436 posts
There are many reasons to go on Roads Scholar tour. But just to get the after hours tour of Sistine chapel might not be one of them. You can do that with a separate small group tour for just that event. Such as this on viator.com.
Viator is a booking agency. From the details on viator website that tour is run by https://www.whatalifetours.com/ if you prefer to book directly.
Posted by
Land of La
8831 posts
And why aren’t you considering a Rick Steves tour?
Posted by
Big Island of Hawaii
711 posts
Ha, ha, Claudia, you beat me to it! After all, this is a Rick Steves forum. :-) I've been to Italy on two RS tours and loved both of them.
It is interesting to see the Road Scholar private Sistine Chapel and Vatican museums tour that operates after normal closing hours. I wonder how many other companies offer the same thing?
Posted by
OP
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3325 posts
We won’t take a Rick Steves tour until their Covid policy is changed. Been kicked off one tour and that will not be happening again.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16765 posts
There are a number of companies that offer “after hours” and “early access” tours of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museum. We chose City Wonders for an early access tour as they claim to be the first group allowed into the Sistine Chapel. That was certainly true for us, as there fewer than 50 people in the chapel for the first 20 minutes we were inside. Then a few more people started dribbling in, but it still was not at all crowded when we left, after 45 minutes of silence in that wondrous place. Then we were free to explore the museum on our ow. The Rafael Room was by this time crowded with other guided groups, but we had the Map Room, my favorite, all to ourselves.
https://citywonders.com/vatican-tours/sistine-chapel-early-access
They also offer an after-hours tour.
Note that these tours are not “ private” in the sense that only your small group is in there. Your group of 16-22 people ( depending on the tour you pick) will share the space with other small groups, but there should not be so manny people it feels at all crowded.
I would not book anything with Viator; they are a third-party booking agency. Book directly with the actual tour provider.
Posted by
OP
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3325 posts
Thank you Lola and others very helpful!
Posted by
16 posts
We are doing an independent trip to Italy next month, and booked the Sistine Chapel, Extra Time w/Happy Hour tour on our own.
Here is the description received from the museum staff, when I asked for clarification:
You can book/pay for this direct. Here is the email as well. We were also able to book the Scavi tour direct.
Good morning,
with the reference to your email, we inform you that the Museum closes at 16:00 to the public.
The tour "Extra Time "is a special tour , (starts at 16:00 from the guided tour desk, you should be there 15 minutes before)
You have the exclusive entrance to the Sistine Chapel with the explanation of the guide inside (usually is not allowed) , after the closing to the public.
In this tour is included the "Happy Hour" in the end of the tour.
The duration of the tour included the happy hous is about 3 hours.
The itinerary includes:
Pio Clementino, Museum, Upper Galleries the Raphael Rooms and exclusive entrance to the Sistine Chapel.
We inform that This type of the visit is available only in English.