Rick's 2011 Italy Book

It does not. The Rome book mentions it briefly in the section called "St. Peter's Basilica Tour". It refers you to the website www.vatican.va for details.

Thanks, Michael! That's exactly what I needed to know.

Teresa I googled it, found the Vatican office for this, sent an email and was accepted for an October tour in less than 24 hours. Sent my credit card after they gave me the date and time and am all set- took less than 36 hours.
See also http://www.vagabondish.com/the-vatican-necropolis-rome/

And this official site has some good info: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/necropoli/scavi_english.html

Happy to help. FWIW, the Scavi tour was one of the highlights of our recent trip. I think Christians and non-
Christians would find it interesting, but it has an additional meaning for Christians (especially Catholics), since it deals with the burial site of Peter's body. As a liberal Protestant, I found that part of it surprisingly moving, thinking of Peter's life and death.

I actually did the Scavi tour back in 2004 and it was most definitely a highlight. Friends are going to Rome this October, and I was going to recommend the tour to them. I know they've got the Italy book, so I wanted to know if I could just tell them to read about it in Rick. Since he doesn't have much on it, I'm going to be nice and do the research for them. :-)

We did this in 2006 and really enjoyed it. You are not allowed to take photos so you would only see official ones when searching. The official site with how to make reservations is http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_07121999_en.html