Rome Trip Overview
This special and exclusive tour is undoubtedly the best way to visit the most of the Vatican. From early morning, before opening time, access to the Vatican Museums, all the way through to touring the once-private Gardens of the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo.
Additional Info
Duration: 10 hours
Starts: Rome, Italy
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
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What to Expect When Visiting Rome, Lazio, Italy
This special and exclusive tour is undoubtedly the best way to visit the most of the Vatican. From early morning, before opening time, access to the Vatican Museums, all the way through to touring the once-private Gardens of the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00120 Vatican City Italy
The Vatican museums represent the most visited museums by tourists traveling in Italy. Precisely for this reason they are almost always super crowded and you need to wait long lines before you can visit them. With this tour you will have the opportunity to see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Vatican Gardens, Viale Vaticano presso Musei Vaticani, 00120 Vatican City Italy
The Gardens of Vatican City, also informally known as the Vatican Gardens in Vatican City, are private urban gardens and parks which cover more than half of the country, located in the west of the territory and owned by the Pope
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Stanze di Raffaello, Viale Vaticano, Vatican City Italy
The four Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms, now part of the Vatican Museums in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, they are the grand fresco sequences that mark the High Renaissance in Rome
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Sistine Chapel, Viale Vaticano, 00165 Vatican City Italy
The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope, in Vatican City. The chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today, it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
St. Peter’s Square
is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus considered by Catholics to be the first Pope.
At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in “the maternal arms of Mother Church”. A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City Italy
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave which is within the city of Rome.
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter’s is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture[2] and the largest church in the world. St. Peter’s is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as “holding a unique position in the Christian world”[4] and as “the greatest of all churches of Christendom”
Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus’s apostles
St. Peter’s is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Castel Gandolfo, Castel Gandolfo, Province of Rome, Lazio
Castel Gandolfo , is a town located 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Rome. It is considered one of Italy’s most scenic towns.
The Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo served as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church. Although the palace is located within the borders of Castel Gandolfo, it has extraterritorial status as one of the properties of the Holy See and is not under Italian jurisdiction. It is now open as a museum.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Giro del lago di Albano (anello), Albano Laziale Italy
Lake Albano is a small volcanic crater lake in the Alban Hills of Lazio, at the foot of Monte Cavo, 20 km southeast of Rome. Castel Gandolfo, overlooking the lake, is the site of the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo. In Roman times it was known as Albanus Lacus and lay not far from the ancient city of Alba Longa
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Chiesa di San Tommaso da Villanova, Piazza della Repubblica 12, 00040 Castel Gandolfo Italy
It is the Pontifical Parish Church and overlooks the main square of the village. It was built from 1658 on commission of Pope Alexander VII Chigi and the project was entrusted to the genius of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
It was inaugurated in 1661 after Antonio Raggi had completed the decoration in stucco of the interior of the dome. The religious building has a Greek cross plan, and is surmounted by a dome covered with lead foils, with lantern to facilitate the lighting of the interior.
Duration: 1 hour
