Sistine chapel visit semi-private shore excursion for seniors

Welcome to the forum. This is a community forum; Rick does not participate here. Replies come from community members.

I'm not sure what you mean by "semi private tour". Perhaps you mean a small group tour? You should know that the Sistine Chapel can only be seen as part of a Vatican Museum tour. And it is at the very end of the tour. You could of course pay a very high price for a private tour where the guide took you there without stopping; but you would still have to walk through the museum galleries to get there. And regardless of your own group size, you will be surrounded by crowds of other tour groups.

If walking is a problem, the Museum has wheelchair rentals. But you would need someone to push you. There is also the issue of getting from the ship in Civitavecchia to the Vatican. You would either have to make your own way to the meeting point, or find a guide willing to travel to the port to pick you up.

This link will take you to an earlier thread about Vatican tours. Its long, and you'll need to scroll down quite a bit, but one of the replies has a list of previously recommended tour companies:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/vatican-and-sistine-chapel

ETA: I assume you've already ruled out the Viking Private tour?

Hello and welcome to the RS forums -
First thing: Mr. Steves doesn't contribute to the forums. Aside from just some very occasional posts by staff, they're populated by ordinary (nice) folks with a love of travel. :O)

Second thing: The Vatican Museums have become so overrun and difficult to maneuver through that even Rick's own tours do not include them anymore. If you are visiting Rome on one of his tours and want to visit the Vatican Museums, you use some of your free time and make your own reservations.

Third thing: the Sistine Chapel is in the Vatican Museums and located at the furthest end...which means quite a long walk through dense crowds to reach it, and a similar long walk back to the exit. There's no shortcut to it, and no way JUST to see the chapel. Persons having difficulty walking to begin with may find the time required to be on their feet to be too much for them.

Wheelchairs are available (if they aren't all in use) but travelers unfamiliar with the museums of using wheelchairs really should have minders along for assistance.

Fourth thing: I assume their ship is docking in Civitavecchia? If so, it's a good hour away from Rome. How long will their ship be in port? To be honest, frequent recommendations for day-tripping from there is to book one of the ship's excursions to be sure of getting back in time for boarding. I'm personally unfamiliar with semi-private tours that can accommodation mobility challenges, and most tours last 3 hours or so and cover additional parts of the museums in addition to the Sistine.

You might look at this option? Sage Travel has been around for a long time and has Rick's endorsement.
https://www.sagetraveling.com/vatican-and-st-peters-accessible-shore-excursion

The couple doesn't sound as if they're disabled enough to meet the free-entry requirement, and I don't know as Sage can handle/guarantee the acquiring of wheelchairs at the museums but they may be able to customize a private tour for you that would work. I would expect it to be quite expensive, however.

All-in-all, while timed-entry tickets or tours are not an issue (must be purchased in advance), covering the distance to/from the chapel in a very crowded environment might be a problem.

(Editing to add: CJ and I were typing away at the same time but it looks like we're pretty much on the same page! )

There’s no “skip the line” tour to the Sistine Chapel. You have to go all the way through the Vatican Museums to get there and the line is continuously moving. No stopping to look at the details of the ceiling. It’s crowded. Very crowded. So it’s several hours of walking and probably not doable by people who are not physically fit.