Guided tour recommendations

We've used a number of private guides through out Europe in junction with our RS Tours...ALL have come from the recommendations w/in the RS Tour books with excellent results! Using Rick's relationships/recommendations is my advise.
I start with an e-mail to them...inquiry...and develop relationships myself...then after a few inquiries I make my choice/agreement.

Best wishes!

The Vatican Museums operate tours of their own. No one currently offers tours that get you into the museums before the time they open to the public, which I think is now 8 AM. The differences between the Vatican Museums' tours and commercial tours are these:

• The tours offered by the Vatican Museums are considerably less expensive. They do not include St. Peter's Basilica but do include the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the Museums.
• Some of the commercial tours include St. Peter's Basilica as well as the Museums, and in the past their clients have usually been able to accompany the guide through the door connecting the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica. That saves a long walk back through the Museums and around the outside of the building as well as a probably extremely long wait in the security line for the Basilica. However, this means the clients have to leave the Museums at the same time as the guide, with no opportunity to go back through the (huge) Museums to see things the tour guide bypassed (which would likely include the entire Pinacoteca/art gallery and some other areas).

2025 is a Holy Year. I don't know whether some procedures might be different now.

The Vatican Museums sell out for most days even outside Holy Years, and in some cases they sell out way, way in advance. I would expect even earlier sellouts this year. Plain entry tickets (without an in-person guided tour) often sell out earlier than the guided tours. Renting an audio guide is also an option.

Entry to St. Peter's is free, but there is a security line to be cleared, and that line tends to be very long even outside Holy Years. Showing up before opening time might put the visitor is a shorter-than-average line, but I think opening time is 7 AM. I'm not aware of a way to avoid the security line unless you take one of the commercial combination tours mentioned above--assuming they're running as usual this year. Even if the tours are offered, it's possible use of the oh-so-handy connecting door might be suspended at times when there's something special going on in the Basilica [that's just my speculation].

I haven't taken a tour of any part of the Vatican and cannot provide a personal recommendation, but others here have, and I'm sure you'll get some experience-based recommendations shortly.

I have not been to Florence recently enough to provide information on visiting the Duomo.