Vatican City and Museums Private Tour Guide

I did a Vatican Museum Tour with a guide on a Tuesday January 3rd 2017 for 52 euros; It was very crowded with other groups and indiviudals in the musuem during our 9 am tour. no way to take photos
I used this company found it legit and they offer several other tours
https://www.mayatoursroma.com/

In addition to the tour of the Museum we got priority entrance into St Peters Cathedral, otherwise you have to wait in a long line.

Take a day trip out of the city to find a slower pace on Saturday try Orvieto an hour away you will like it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orvieto

We are headed to Rome on the 17 of Feb. we booked two tours with Walks of Italy, recommended by Rick and many posters here - Pristine Sistine Vatican and VIP Colosseum. For Sunday we just booked the Galleria Borghese. We will take a day trip to Orvieto. Also, the seminarians from the Pontifical North American College give free tours Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri of St Peter's. Meet at 2:15 at the Information Office and they will announce the tour in English. From all my reading I believe there aren't any Vatican tours on Wed b/c of the Papal audience. Have a great trip.

If you want to enjoy the Sistine Chapel, I would recommend a small group-early entry. Walks of Italy is highly recommended. The group meets up at about 7:30, you actually are in the Chapel by 8:30 at the latest; you have a fair amount of time in the Chapel before it gets crowded.

except for the Vatican which I know is only open on that first Sunday
and free

John, this thankfully doesn't affect you but for anyone else reading this thread, it's LAST Sundays of the month that these museums are open for limited hours and have free entry (definitely not the day to try and do them)!! It's Italian National Museums which are free on first Sundays of the month.

We did the Pristine Sistine tour with Walks of Italy a few years ago. We were travelling in early March so also not prime season and we were lucky that we were the only ones that booked the tour so we got a private tour for a group tour price. The tour was excellent and I would highly recommend it.

We also did this tour our first evening: https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/welcome-rome-walking-tours There was only one other couple with us on the tour. It was a great tour and we found the tips they gave us were super helpful for the rest of our week.

We found the Rick Steves guide to be sufficient for the Colosseum but we were rather lost using it in the Forum. If we were to do it again, we would get a guide for that part.

I love having a private tour of the Colosseo and Foro Romano! We've done it twice with a guide and twice alone, but as noted above, it is challenging to figure out the Forum from a guidebook. I highly recommend a 3-4 hour private tour with someone who can personalize the experience for you. Try Sonia Tavoletta ([email protected]). Many of our visitors enjoyed her services when we lived in Rome. We personally took both her tour and Francesca Caruso's tour and were equally pleased. Sonia is a colleague of Francesca's and a little easier to book. :-)

John
We have done the Colosseum underground tour with the guides from the Colosseum and have done the Vatican museum tour with their own guides twice. I thought that all the guides and their tours were extremely well done and we didn't have to pay a higher price for the other tours (walks of Italy, etc). I believe that part of the excitement leading up to the trip is to be well informed about where you are visiting so one of us will study a particular destination (the Vatican, Colosseum, pantheon, etc) and discuss with the others over dinner the evening before.

Hope you find what your need, Marie