Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel Tour

Vatican museum and Sistine chapel tour includes:the Gallery of the Candelabra, which takes its name from the marble candelabra that divides the area into six sections, showcases several paintings and beautiful marble inlays. The Gallery of Geographical Maps, in the heart of the Vatican Museum, houses a series of frescoes dating back to the sixteenth century. The frescoes depict many Italian landscapes, gathered here for your viewing pleasure. Vatican Museums tour will also take you to the Gallery of the Tapestries, which includes a Flemish series depicting episodes from the life of Christ, created based on studies made by pupils of the renaissance painter “Raphael”, and a tapestry depicting episodes from the life of Pope Urban VIII, produced in the workshop of “Cardinal Antonio Barberini” in the seventeenth century.

Vatican Museum tour also includes a visit to the world-renowned Sistine Chapel. Once a private chapel only accessible to the Pope, it is now used to house the papal conclave, which holds the papal elections. The ceiling holds the beautiful fresco The Last Judgement, made by Michelangelo between 1535 and 1541. The fresco shows the Day of Judgment, and the process through which, according to the Bible, every soul will be judged to be then sent to either heaven or hell. The figure of Christ, along with the Saints, are also depicted on the high wall. The tour will also lead you to the private rooms of Pope Julius II. The four rooms, known as the “Rooms of Raphael”, were decorated by Raphael and his assistants with beautiful frescoes in the sixteenth century.

Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tour also includes a visit to the Basilica of Saint Peter, the largest church in the world. It was designed by great renaissance artists, including “Michelangelo” and “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”. This famous place of pilgrimage and worship also holds the tomb of Saint Peter, who is considered to have been the very first pope. The Basilica of Saint Peter is also home of the “La Pietà by Michelangelo”. This piece shows the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ and mourning his death. Curiously, this sculpture is the only one of his that Michelangelo ever signed with his name. Our tour will provide you with an expert guide who will reveal all the artistic nuances of this grandiose basilica and the art it contains.

Our tour culminates in one of the most famous squares in the world: St. Peter’s square. Its wide colonnade, an extraordinary example of baroque architecture, was designed by “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”., and is meant to represent the maternal arms of the Church, embracing everyone in it. In the center of the square is also an 84 ft. tall Egyptian obelisk supported by bronze lions. It was placed in the square by pope Sixtus V. From the square you will also be able to see the window of the pope’s private apartments, where the pope himself says mass every morning. From here the pope also holds a speech every Sunday, to which follows the prayer of the Angelus.