Description :

Experience the Vatican Museums in the peace and quiet that was intended on our semi-private, small group tour. With 12 people or less per group, your visit will be intimate and unhurried and your guide easy to interact with. Early morning access means you’ll enter the Museums before the general public so you’ll be ahead of the pack on your journey through this incredible structure.  Once inside, we visit the most important sights of the Vatican Museums, from Apollo Belvedere and the Gallery of Tapestries to the Raphael Rooms. With commentary from your expert English-speaking guide, you’ll understand better the incredible masterpieces held within this 9-mile collection – a fact you’ll appreciate all the more when you get to the Sistine Chapel. Admire Michelangelo’s beautiful frescoes and pick out the quirks and stories your guide told you about – one of many self-portraits perhaps, or a personal enemy suffering a strange death. From the Sistine Chapel we use a special entrance to access St. Peter's Square directly, bypassing another long line. Visit Michelangelo's Pieta and see the colossal basilica dome, even more impressive when you understand just how long it took to build. We’ll end our tour with a bang out in St. Peter's Square from where you can see the Pope’s famous balcony and Bernini’s optical illusion.

District

Vatican City

Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world. The importance of this city state however is inversely proportional to its size. The area which Vatican City occupies is between Monte Mario and the Janiculum. In the 1st century B.C., it was the site of Caligula's circus - where Nero had hundreds of Christians martyred, some years after. The Church rises on teh spot where one of Nero's victims St. Peter was buried. Over the years, other building grew up around it. The Vatican's independence started in the 8th century, and was of primary importance throughout the Middle Ages. The Papal State expanded to such an extent that, until the unity of Italy when it was wiped off the Italian political scene, it covered practically all of Central Italy. It only regained an independent political status in 1929 (as a state with less than a half a square kilometer of territory).