Rome: Complete Early Morning Vatican Tour

Experience the Vatican like never before with our small group Vatican tour. Get early access to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums, enjoy personal attention from expert guides, and explore St. Peter’s Basilica before the crowds arrive.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • What a Life Tours - The activity starts directly at our office located conveniently very close to the Museums’ entrance.
What's Included
  • Meet your guide at our comfortable offices near the Museums’ entrance
  • Skip-the-line access to St. Peter’s Basilica
  • Headsets to hear the guide
  • Small group
  • Expert English-speaking tour guide
  • Early entrance guaranteed
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Gratuites
Additional Information

Meet at our comfortable offices less than a block from the museum entrance. Join our small group Vatican tour in the early morning with a top-notch tour guide and get early entrance to the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums & Raphael Rooms. In a small group, you will be able to discover with no rush the extraordinary abundance of history and art.

Your guide will tour you through these corridors and halls, pointing out the exhibits on display. Once through, the Sistine Chapel awaits you.

The finale of our early entry Vatican tours culminates in St. Peter’s Basilica. Majestic and inspired, it is the perfect place to come full circle on the morning’s itinerary. Feast your eyes on Michelangelo’s Pietà and admire the stunning interior of the dome he designed, as well as Bernini’s massive bronze baldachin sitting over the Pope’s private alter directly above St. Peter’s tomb and other little-known details that can only be spotted when inside!

  • While the Vatican Museums are equipped with elevators for wheelchair access, they are not conveniently located on the group tour route and only give access to specific sections of the Museums. As a result, we cannot accommodate wheelchairs on this tour.
  • A dress code is required to enter places of worship and selected museums. No shorts or sleeveless tops allowed. Knees and shoulders MUST be covered for both men and women. You may risk refused entry if you fail to comply with these dress requirements.
  • Please plan on being at the meeting point 15 minutes prior to the start time.
  • We recommend that you bring your own headphones as the ones provided by the Vatican have a single earpiece only, and you may prefer to use both earbuds to hear the guide better.
Location
What a Life Tours
Via Santamaura
The tour meets directly at our office, the exact address is Via Santamaura 14/B. Please remember that Rome’s streets can be confusing, so we recommend allowing extra time in case you get lost.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(1412 Ratings)
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Wendysq9407fr
Jul 25, 2024
An excellent tour, which more than fulfilled our expectations. - An absolutely fantastic experience. The tour was not cheap but more than worth every penny. Our guide Elaine was beyond praise: erudite and informative, witty and amusing, a great raconnteuse (saucy at times ;)), she kept us enthralled with never a hesitation, repetition or stumble - the time simply flew by. Her engagement with, and knowledge and love of the art she was describing was clear throughout the tour and greatly enhanced our understanding and enjoyment. 5* for the professionalism of the tour company, and 5*++ for Elaine!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
U7214eymathewb
Jul 24, 2024
Amazing!!! - Elaine was wonderful as our tour guide. She was extremely entertaining given the amount of information given. She was abundantly knowledgeable on our tour of the Vatican Sistine Chapel and St. Petersburg Square!!! Wonderful and highly recommended!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Trip06219284717
Jul 23, 2024
Early bird gets the worm - Cannot recommend this tour enough. We were guided by the highly knowledgeable and witty Michele who creatively curated our tour through the Vatican, pointing out some amazing features along the way and filled us on the influences of the various popes and artists throughout its history. It is clear from the way Michele spoke that he is really passionate about the site, its history, and the influences it continues to have to this day both locally and globally, and this passion made our time with him all the more enjoyable. An early entry tour is highly recommended - crowds were not as overwhelming and you have the space to really take in the intricate details of the paintings and sculptures without fighting for space, so do yourself a favour and go early. If you are guided by Michele, you are in for a rare treat!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Chicagowg1
Jul 21, 2024
Vatican Tour - Upfront I have to apologize for not remembering my tour guide's name for my early morning Vatican tour on July 1, 2024. I am finally getting around to writing about my experience over 2 weeks ago. She is the witty British woman that performs her tour guide duties with great enthusiasm. She did an excellent job of providing not only a historical background for every art piece covered by the tour. But her excellent story telling skills brought to life ancient stories as if they were currently occurring. Also, I have to thank What a Life Tours for tailoring the small group only tours. I did observe other tour groups with way too many people and many did not look engaged in the actual impersonal tour they were supposed to be experiencing. Believe me when I say everyone in our group was totally engaged in our exciting tour. Even her jokes were timed perfectly, this woman can teach a class on what a tour guide should be. I was so moved by her story telling that afterwards I not only fact checked her information and wanted to know a whole lot more. So yes, I do feel as if I have been changed as a result of taking this tour. I do not recommend any first time visitor try to tackle coverage of the Vatican on their own because the task is too daunting and overwhelming. I highly, highly recommend my tour guide, so don't be shy when asking to be led by the witty English woman with What a Life Tours.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Keithox742rh
Jul 19, 2024
Highly Reccomended - First and foremost Elaine was an amazing guide. There was a lot more to the Vatican than I realized - from Roman and Greek Statues to modern art and everything in between. One of the best museums in the world and Elaine was intimately familiar with every room, sharing background and hidden insights at every turn. Her ability to structure the tour and keep the (small) group together and moving through the melee while keeping us engaged with fun and amusing anecdotes and historical tidbits was superb. If you want to get the most out of a Vatican visit, go with Elaine!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Denise
Jul 18, 2024
Exquisite Vatican Experience! - We thoroughly enjoyed this tour and highly recommended it. Our guide, Elaine was exceptional! She had an intense knowledge of history, art and culture as well as a wonderful sense of humor! That caused our group to really engage with her and each other. Elaine also navigated the crowds and helped us manage during the July heat. Absolutely wonderful experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Alib21
Jul 15, 2024
Great insights into art history - I can't say enough positive things about our guide, Smaragda. As an art historian, she was able to give historical and artistic context to everything we saw on the tour. I loved what she was able to share about techniques and hidden meanings of various artworks. We were fortunate to have her as our guide. Also, she has the patience of a saint. Our tour had individuals with challenges that could have sidetracked the entire process. She did an excellent job of accommodating their needs without compromising the experience of the broader group.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Weelee_d
Jul 14, 2024
Excellent navigator through super busy summer crowds in the Vatican ! - Wow! Anna is a great guide for us and is really an expert at navigating through a busy crowd and sharing with us the most interesting data points of the Vatican. She is also so knowledgeable about everything in the art and history of the Vatican. I do agree that it is so busy in the summer - at 8am, there were already crazy crowds in the area trying to get in. I am understanding both crowds and heat of the sun (95degree f) being super challenging to enjoy the amazing historical site. Note - most of the artifacts in the Vatican are not in air conditioned rooms. A suggestion for the operator ( cos our tour operator in Venice did this) is to do pre-check of the microphone before we leave their area. It would be a great step to ask everyone to test their headset before we walk away, because this was not something that happened, and then we literally had to turn back (luckily only a minute out) and get our operator to help people connect to the key transmitter.
Review provided by Viator
Kevinbg852vb
Jul 13, 2024
Awesome and amazed - Elaine was excellent! Super knowledgeable, provided a lot of back stories and made it fun! The tour was perfectly paced.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Angelica_j
Jul 13, 2024
If you want to skip the lines, go for it. - The only advantage to this tour is to skip the lines! Our guide was knowledgeable and shared a lot of info but it took too long in certain areas at the Vatican museums. When we got into the Basilica, we were basically out of time, and did not get to see much of it. He said that we could go back inside to take time to see it but by then it was too hot and too crowded. The reason we booked the early morning tour was to get ahead of the crowds but spending so much time at the museum did not help achieve that. I think the pace could’ve been a little faster. I really did not get as much as I thought I would from this tour which was quite disappointing.
Review provided by Viator
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September 2024
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