Please sign in to post.

I need help with Rome Tour/Tour Guide Choices

Posted by on

I can use some help with tour/tour guide choices in Rome. My family of 2 adults, 2 students have a trip planned for next month, August staying in Rome for 3 days/nights, then on to other areas in Tuscany.

In Rome, we want to spend part of a day touring the Vatican City, and be able to take some pictures of, the Sistine Chapel & St.Peter's Basilica as well as the Vatican museums. Raphael rooms would be of interest as well.

My hotel management has recommended using Carrani tours for our Vatican tour. We booked a morning tour including Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. I have heard that it is sometimes difficult to get pictures. Is that true with all tours? This is our first trip to Italy so excuse the ignorance on what to expect. I am not sure if I should be rethinking the reservation or not.

Can anyone tell me of experience they have with Carrani tours or recommend a different tour company to use for this tour?

Posted by
16895 posts

Everyone will be in the same boat for photos, regardless of tour. The Vatican Museums get quite crowded and allow photos WITHOUT flash in most of the museum (as does St. Peter's Basilica), but do not allow any photos (or talking) in the Sistine Chapel. You're better off buying prints from the museum.

Posted by
11294 posts

If photos without lots of other people in them are a high priority, you'll probably want to take one of the tours that gets you into the Vatican Museums (which includes the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel; they're inside the museum) early or late. One company that does early tours and gets good reviews on this Forum is the "Pristine Sistine" tour by Walks of Italy; there are others. Here's a thread discussing how the tour guide specifically told them to get pictures early: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/vatican-tours-bf27ad80-947c-4634-824f-7e0b45cb57b4

If you go during regular hours, it will be you and hundreds or thousands of others. This is true whether you go on your own or take a tour.

Posted by
2456 posts

Just to confirm: (1) Walks of Italy early AM Pristine Sistine tour (or other similar tours by other companies) get you into and walk you quickly through areas of the Vatican Museum before they are open to the general public, allowing unobstructed photos in those areas, without flash I believe. You will then go back through the museum again later with the public jammed in, and unobstructed photos then are generally impossible. Maybe in slow months or hours that is not so true. (2) we were told that the company that paid millions of dollars to clean up the Sistine Chapel owns the exclusive rights to photos there, which is strictly enforced. When I was there a man took photos and there was immediately a guard in his face screaming at him, in English, "you took two photos, delete them both!"

Posted by
4152 posts

Even if on a private, early morning tour you will not be allowed to take any photos inside the Sistine chapel. That is a rule they are very strict about. Just buy the professional photos they have for sale.

Donna

Posted by
1054 posts

Larry has it 100% correct above. I did the AM Walk of Italy tour we we were in the museum before it opened to general public. We walk past everything and go straight the chapel. However, our tour guide Luigi pointed out items as we walked by and said take a picture of this. I"ll explain it later but take your picture now with no one here. I was glad he did that. When we returned after the chapel the place was packed with people 2-3 rows deep by the wall. I have some awesome pictures unobstructed with people

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.