The Vatican Museums have some of the most impressive art collections in the world, if you like to discover them in depth this is the right tour for you!

The Vatican Museums do not contain just art collections of paintings, sculptures and other works of art, collected by the popes over the centuries, but they are Museums inside a Museum.

All the art collections are housed inside the rooms that the Popes, over the ages, chose as Private Apartments, visiting the Vatican Museums you have the opportunity to admire the Apostolic Palaces‘ most extraordinary and fully “a fresco” decorated rooms, once inaccessible places.

Start with a view of the huge St Peter’s Dome from the Pinacoteca Courtyard and then follow our skilled local guide through the amazing Pinacoteca, the Paintings Gallery, which contains masterpieces by the most famous painters from the 12th to 19th century, be delighted by Giotto’s revolutionary Trittico Stefaneschi, Raphael’s last work the Transfiguration, St. Jerome, the only Leonardo’s painting in Rome and the Caravaggio‘s Deposition from the Cross.

Admire the most famous Roman and Greek statues in the Pio Clementino Museum, established by Popes Clement XIV and Pius VI in the 18th century to collect the Ancient sculptures owned by the Vatican: the Belvedere Apollo, the celebrated Laocoon Group, the Belvedere Torso by Apollonius, that inspired artists form Michelangelo to Rodin, the Sarcophagi of St Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and his daughter Costantia, entirely made of rare red porphyry stone.

Then be led to the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, one of the first expressly dedicated to Etruscan antique population, a hidden gem full of surprises located in the Palace of Innocent VIII, which contains vases, bronzes and other archaeological findings and exhibits gold jewelry made by the Etruscan goldsmiths. From the Etruscan Museum you have the chance to see through a window the Bramante’s monumental double-helix Staircase.

After crossing the Gallery of Candelabra, Tapestries and Maps, visit the outstanding Raphael’s Rooms, part of the papal apartments and then, after the Borgia’s Apartments, get inside the amazing Sistine Chapel, entirely covered with the most famous Michelangelo’s frescoes, the Ceiling and the Last Judgement.

The tour will end inside the St. Peter’s basilica, the greatest of all churches of Christendom and one of the holiest Catholic shrines, where you will admire the magnificent main altar, the Baldaquin, designed by the most famous baroque artist Giovan Lorenzo Bernini, touch the foot of St.Peter’s statue to get his blessing, be amazed in front of the Michelangelo’s masterpiece the Pietà.

This Tour gives you the deepest knowledge of the masterpieces and artists kept inside the amazing Vatican Museums.