There are plenty of Facebook posts advertising conducted tours of the Vatican. As we are older, St. Peter's Dome is probably not the best for us to attempt, given the narrow steps. What is a suggested tour company to visit the Vatican in early June 2026?
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
We used The Roman Guy (aka The Tour Guy) for our tour of the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica (not the dome). We were free to explore the gardens after our tour. We were happy with our tour.
We were free to explore the gardens after our tour.
Worth mention, maybe, that as far as I know the gardens can only be accessed with a tour, and I'm not seeing anything on the Roman Guy/Tour Guy website that includes the Museums/Sistine + the gardens.
Fran, I wish I had an option to offer up but I'll caution you is to use the Vatican's own official site for ticketing/tours or other respected operators recommended by posters on this site (the Roman Guy/Tour Guy is one of those.) There are several 3rd-party sites out there that are cleverly designed to look 'official' but are overpriced imposters.
This is the Vatican Museums official website; they do have a garden and museum tour although we've not taken it.
https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html
My mistake. There was a green area with fountains, etc. that we were able to walk around in, and I thought those were the gardens. Thanks for the correction.
Thank you for your comments, and appreciate the tips.
The Vatican site is a bit difficult to navigate, and we're hoping to find a tour that works for us.
We used the Tour Guy for Vatican over the Christmas school break. I think the biggest issue is the insanity of the crowds. It was gridlock when we went (we did a morning tour) and it was so crowded. The best thing we did was to do a tour that included the cut through to the Sistine Chapel, that saves about .5 miles of walking around from one to the other. The important thing when you buy the tickets is to make sure it's not on a day when the cut-through isn't open.
We used Askos Tours to go to Pompeii and Tour Guy for about 3 tours.
Just to clarify-the shortcut is from the Sistine Chapel into St Peter’s Basilica
We're thinking of doing a tour right after the pope's general audience on Wednesday, June 17. I think we are safe to schedule this at 1:30 p.m.
Great tip to save time and steps during the tour. How would we find out if this passageway is open?
How would we find out if this passageway is open?
As Christine said, that nifty shortcut is for going directly from Sistine into St. Peter's, not to the Sistine from elsewhere in the museums. it's only accessible for tours, and only those which specify its use in their tour descriptions. The Vatican Museums don't offer a combo museums + basilica tour themselves so booking through one of the better independent companies is necessary for this benefit. Here are a couple of for-examples:
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/vatican/sistine-chapel-vatican-tour?
https://www.walksofitaly.com/vatican-tours/complete-vatican-tour/
Note that all 3 have disclaimers in the event of special religious services that may affect the ability to use the shortcut: stuff happens. This example from Walks of Italy:
"Please Note: The special access passage between the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica is not available on morning tours at 8:45am, 9:45am, & 10:15am on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is subject to other unexpected closures during special celebrations/festivities, including the Easter ceremonies. On such days we will instead explore more of the Vatican Museums' galleries."
The Wed. morning closure of the passage is standard for all tours which would otherwise use it.
The tours sampled above don't include the gardens.
Expect both museums and basilica to be very crowded.
Does it sound reasonable to attend the Wednesday morning Pope audience and schedule the tours at 1:30 p.m. on the same day?
I would assume that Wednesday would be extremely crowded-it would not be my choice
I have a feeling Christine's right about Wednesday afternoon being a popular time for folks to go to the Vatican Museums, given the Pope's audience on Wednesday morning. However, online tickets for the Museums will almost certainly sell out for every afternoon time slot in June (and probably all morning time slots after 9 AM as well), so I'm not sure conditions inside the Museums are going to be much busier on Wednesday afternoon thana t other times. You'll just need to be on the ball about buying your tickets.
The place was a zoo in March 2023 (yet I could see how it could be worse). Expect it to be a miserable experience, then you won't be so disappointed.
We plan to attend the papal audience on June 17 to celebrate our 5oth wedding anniversary with our family (including two grandchildren, ages 10 and 12). As a senior, I think it's overwhelming to do this and then visit the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I have heard that the Pristine Sistine private tour is an early morning, small-group guided visit. Adding an extra day to our Rome stay and doing it on Thursday rather than Wednesday, after the papal audience, makes the experience family-friendly. Any thoughts?
