Hello, I'm preparing to purchase my Vatican admission tickets and noticed there are many tour offerings. What's the most comprehensive Vatican guided tours for individuals? We want to see everything we can possibly see. Should we eat lunch at the Vatican?
Thanks
I don't know about the tours but there is an excellent little cafe in the courtyard of the museums. If you do eat in the downstairs cafeteria instead, avoid the pizza - you have been warned.
All of the tours offered by the official site have descriptions of what the tours entail. Choose the one that is best for you. None of the tours will cover everything at the Vatican museums.
Donna
if you want the best experience in the vatican, i would suggest taking a private tour or a small group tour. i took a more standard tour that consisted of a fairly large group of people. we were given headsets so we could listen to the guide as she took us through the museum. while the guide was very good and knowledgable, i found that most of my attention was focused on trying to keep track of where the guide was going. the tour was quite fast paced and the museum was packed with people, therefore losing track of the guide and the rest of the group can be a real possibility. if you want to really stop and look at some of the artifacts then having a personal guide or going in a small group could be very beneficial.
The Vatican-sponsored tours are good, but it can be hard to move around with the large group and keep track of the guide. But if the price and timing works for you, you may want to go this route.
As an alternative, I would suggest looking at the website for Context Rome. They limit group size to six, which makes a huge difference in being able to maneuver in a crowded museum. The guides I've had with this agency have been amazing. They have several Vatican itineraries.
