Vatican Museums Private Tour

The Sistine Chapel

Included in the tour of the Vatican Museum, it is one of the most famous cultural and artistic treasures of Vatican City and the world. Dedicated to Maria Assunta in Cielo, it was built between 1475 and 1481, at the time of Pope Sisto IV della Rovere, from which it took its name. It is known for being the place where the conclave and the official ceremonies of the Pope are held and for being decorated with frescoes which cover the vault and the wall of the Last Judgment above the altar by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The walls are decorated with works by other great Italian artists (Botticelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, etc.). Initially Michelangelo had been commissioned to paint only twelve figures, the Apostles, but at the end of works there were more than three hundred works.

Vatican Museums

 within the Vatican City State. They exhibit a huge collection of works of art accumulated over the centuries by the Popes. Visitors can admire the Sistine Chapel and the papal apartments with frescoes by Michelangelo and Raffaello. With their 7 kilometers of halls and corridors, the Vatican Museums are the fourth most visited museum in the world. The museums celebrated their 500th anniversary by permanently opening to the public the archaeological excavations of a necropolis located on the Vatican Hill. The Pinacoteca houses works by Giotto, Caravaggio, Beato Angelico, Perugino, Leonardo, Tiziano and Raffaello. In the Palazzi Vaticani you can admire Raffaello's Rooms, decorated with wonderful frescoes that the painter made between 1508 and 1524.

The Gallery of Tapestries is part of the Vatican Museums and was set up in 1838 with the series of tapestries of the New School made on drawings by the pupils of Raffaello at the time of Clement VII. They were first exhibited in 1531 in the Sistine Chapel.

The Gallery of Maps is an exceptional cartographic representation of the regions of Italy, built under the orders of Pope Gregorio XIII. It is a testimony of the geographical knowledge and the state of the places at that time, affirming the geographical and spiritual unity of  Italy.