Vatican Early Access Tour at Opening

The Gallery of Maps is an astonishing hallway where geography and history are perfectly intertwined. Created at the end of the 16th century, the entire room is dedicated to customized maps, which display the whole of Italy. On one side of the 393-foot long gallery are two representations of the country: one from the Imperial Roman Era and the other from the 1500s. Each map shows political happenings, religious roles, and major battles. The ceiling is no less remarkable, with frescoed scenes displaying episodes and miraculous events of apostles, saints and martyrs, which are linked to the geographical maps below.

Raphael’s most famous frescoes can be seen in four rooms in Pope Julius II’s and Leo X’s apartments. The first of the Raphael Rooms (1508-1524) to be frescoed – Pope Julius II’s study – reflects the themes of theology, philosophy, poetry and justice. Raphael’s most noted painting, the School of Athens, highlights the degree of knowledge acquired through reason. The largest of the rooms, the Hall of Constantine, represents the victory of Christianity over Paganism, the Room of Fire is dedicated to Pope Leo IV, and the Room of Heliodorus represents the liberation of St. Peter. A real highlight on our Vatican tour!

This world-renowned sculpture from the 1st century AD portrays Apollo, the Greco-Roman god of light and the arts, immediately after having fired his bow. Apollo’s gaze follows the arrow volley towards its goal, believed to be the serpent Python. Throughout history, art authorities from around the globe have praised the sculpture, hailing it as the most sublime, subtle and engaging piece from ancient times. In the centuries following its unearthing, it had an enormous impact on both Renaissance artists and Neoclassical sculptors, who flocked to the Vatican to witness the charm of the sculpture firsthand.

Out of all the invaluable masterpieces housed in the Vatican Museums, this may just be the most precious of them all. When the sculpture was rediscovered in 1506, it caused a contemporary sensation. Everyone who laid eyes on the marble wonder was stunned by its beauty, including Michelangelo himself. In fact, the Renaissance virtuoso was so smitten with the sculpture that he convinced Julius II to purchase the masterpiece and bring it to the Vatican. The acquisition of the Laocoön would set off centuries of future art by the Vatican Museums, to which we owe the magnificent collection found there today.

The world-renowned tapestries adorning the walls of this breathtaking gallery used to hang in the Sistine Chapel until they were moved to their present-day location. The most esteemed pieces of the collection are the carpets based on Raphael’s drawings, depicting crucial scenes from the life of Jesus. Out of these 9 tapestries, we recommend paying some special attention to The Resurrection of Christ, which is woven in many layers, creating a surprising optical illusion as you walk by. It took the weavers 4 years to finalize the masterpiece and they cleverly used materials of different density in order to obtain the eye-deceiving effect.

This torso one of the world’s most well-renowned examples of a ”disjecta membra", a fancier term for a fragmented statue. The exquisite anatomical delineation of the statue's remnants has made the piece a source of inspiration for numerous artists of different periods; especially during the Baroque and Renaissance eras. The sculpture has even been called The Torso of Michelangelo, because of the profound impact it made on the master. The sculpture was the foundation of Michelangelo’s anatomy studies when designing many of his world-famous creations, including the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

This gallery is one of the most visited in the Museums and world-renowned for the marble sculptures on display. Each of its six sections holds exquisite classical Greek and Roman sculptures creatively arranged around the gallery like furnishings. One of the more unusual pieces is the sculpture featuring Bacchus, the God of Wine, being carried on the shoulders of a young man. What makes this statue special is that Bacchus still has his original glass eyes - something incredibly rare for a 3rd century statue since most of them were robbed by vandals who thought the shiny eye-balls were made out of precious stones!

Upon entering the Chapel, the visual cues are spellbinding. Covering 12,000 square feet, biblical stories inhabit almost every centimetre of space. Gaze upwards at Michelangelo’s ceiling, a masterful tour de force and cornerstone of High Renaissance art, to behold nine mystical depictions of stories from the Book of Genesis. His other masterpiece on the altar wall, The Last Judgment, foreshadows the Second Coming of Christ and the final eternal judgment by God of all humanity. Our early entry Vatican guided tours afford our customers the opportunity to experience this iconic Chapel at a time when it is least busy.

If you thought the size of the Vatican Museums was overwhelmingly spectacular, St. Peter’s Basilica takes the “wow factor” to another level. The sheer capacity of the interiors is enough to leave any visitor searching for words to describe its vastness. At 613 feet long, 85 feet wide and 147 feet high, it took an incredible 120 years to build, starting from 1506. Admire Michelangelo’s unparalleled Pietà masterpiece and stroll towards the center right nave to observe Bernini’s 30-foot high bronze Baldachin, which sits directly atop the site of St. Peter’s tomb.

Directly above the pope’s altar sits a huge bronze canopy, which was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the early 1600s. The Renaissance wunderkind was commissioned the prestigious task at the tender age of 25 and it was his first artistic contribution to the Basilica, where he would continue to work for the rest of his life. Bernini’s patron, Pope Urban VIII, became infamous amongst the Romans when he allowed the artist to melt the bronze beams of the Pantheon’s portico to complete the construction. In total, 120 tons of metal were required to make the Baldachin, which stands at a whopping 95 feet.

Michelangelo was only 23 years old when French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned him to carve "the most beautiful works in marble that Rome has ever seen". While the bar was set high, Michelangelo surprised everyone when the masterpiece was unveiled – none of the onlookers could comprehend how such a young sculptor was able to create something as flawless as the Pietà. Sadly, the perfection was temporarily spoilt in 1972, when a vandal attacked the sculpture with a hammer damaging it severely. The masterpiece was quickly repaired, but visitors now have to admire it from behind bullet-proof glass.