Papal Audience with Vatican Museums Tour & Lunch

Highlights

• Enjoy an audience with the Pope with reserved seating
• Savor a 3-course lunch in a typical Italian restaurant
• Explore the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel on a guided tour

tour description

General Audience with Pope Francis

Meet and greet you Tour Guide in our head office, located just 1 minute from the Vatican Museums entrance, make sure you arrive early and on time, the first to arrive will be assured the best seats! You will then head towards St. Peter's Square with your professional Tour Guide and a very small group. Keep in mind that there will be an airport-style security check so make sure you don't carry any sharp items with you, and if it's a rainy day make sure you carry just small umbrellas. Whilst waiting for the Pope to start you will be amazed by the many fantastic stories behind St. Peter's square and astonished by Bernini's beautiful colonnade. Get ready to hear Pope Francis start his General Audience at 09.30 AM. You will actually be able to feel the excitement and love among the thousands of people attending this unique blessing on Wednesday morning. The Pope's blessing will be translated in many languages by Cardinals to make sure that everybody understands the message of love given. 

 IMPORTANT INFORMATION: In the month of August & during rainy days the General Audience will take place in the Paul VI hall audience, not on St. Peter's Square. 

About your Vatican Tour 

Once the Holy Pope has finished with the General Audience, your Tour Guide will lead you to the entrance of the Vatican Museums and take you inside with a VIP no wait entrance. Explore the Vatican Museums with our Passionate Tour Guide, let the artwork come to life and hear fun facts behind the artists and the Popes of the Time. Your journey will start in the Vatican Museums, a complex of museums filled by sculptures and masterpieces collected by the Popes throughout the Centuries and only completely opened to the public in the late 19th Century. Your Tour Guide will illustrate the most important collections going from the ancient Roman & Greek Statues to the Renaissance frescoes, it will be almost like a travel back in time. Be astonished by the marvelous Papal palaces that amaze thousands and thousands of visitors each and every day. Having a Tour Guide you won't surely miss out on the highlights, such as The Apollo, The Belvedere Torso and the Round room. Wonder down the amazing Galleries of Maps, Tapestries & Candelabra and be stunned by the amazing ceilings covered in gold.

 The Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica

Be prepared to visit the most iconic and important symbolic places of Christendom in the whole entire world, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The Sistine Chapel, located at the very end of the Apostolic Palace takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, whom back in the 15th Century had it restored and from there on has been the holy place for the Pope's election. Between the late 1400s and the early 1500s, Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by the Pope to decorate the whole Sistine Chapel, including the ceiling and the entire wall behind the altar. Michelangelo's painting is what has made the Sistine Chapel so famous nowadays. Your Tour Guide will leave you speechless whilst explaining the hidden details behind the representation of scenes of the book of Genisis and the outstanding Last Judgement. Your passionate tour guide will make sure that all your questions are answered and even tell you fun facts behind the story and the creation of these frescoes, did you know that Michelangelo even painted himself in the Last Judgement ?! Your Tour Guide will then lead you inside St. Peter's Basilica with another VIP no wait entrance. As soon you enter this amazing church you will soon find another of Michelangelo's masterpieces, but this time it won't be a fresco but an amazing sculpture representing the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, La Pietà. Inside St. Peter's Basilica you will also be given extra time to explore at your own pace and visit the Papal crypts that lay underneath the church and the Baldachin designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. 

About your authentic Italian Lunch 

When in Rome... do as the Romans do and enjoy an authentic Italian lunch where the locals would go. We're talking about the real homemade pasta and the fresh mozzarella cheese! Top of your day with a 3-course lunch, you will start with an antipasto, a must for the Italians. A typical antipasto could be Bruschette, warm bread with small tomatoes and olive oil or just a Caprese, mozzarella cheese with fresh-cut tomatoes. You will have a great option when it comes to the many types of pasta that you can choose, from Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe and even Bolognese.. but the real one! A real Italian lunch will always end with a small espresso, but if your not up for the coffee make sure you don't skip your Limoncello. Made with fresh lemons here in Italy, Limoncello is a must to end your lunch in the best traditional way.

Know before you go

•  The entrance to St. Peter's Basilica from the Sistine Chapel will remain closed until further notice. 
• A Green Pass/ COVID vaccine certificate is required to enter the Vatican Museums.
• The audience with the Pope is a free event and does not require a ticket.
• Entrance to the Vatican Museums is subject to a strict dress code and the local operator cannot be held responsible for denied entry due to improper dress. Comfortable shoes are recommended.
• This activity will ensure that you skip the long lines to the museums, however please be prepared for the eventuality that there may still be crowds inside.
• This Tour is NOT wheelchair accessible