Tour the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel After Hours

See the Sitine Chapel like Micelangelo Did

Like most people who travel to Rome, visiting the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel was on my must do list. I have now visited the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel three different ways, the way most people do just getting in line outside the entrance, on a private tour booked with the Vatican Museum during museum hours, and after hours when all the crowds are gone having the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel all to yourself.

The first time I went to Rome, like most people I got in a long line that wrapped around the Vatican Museum almost to St Peter's Square. I spent the two hour wait wishing there was a restroom nearby and reading my guide book about all the treasures I was about to see. The Vatican Museum and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel did not disappoint, at least not what I could actually see. You have heard about the crowds and most likely read about them, despite the miles of galleries, you are going to feel as packed in and cramped as you did on your flight over to Rome.

On my second visit to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, we wisely booked a tour with the Museum directly. We went straight to the entrance and met our guide who took care of tickets and gave us an overview of our itinerary, well worth the 30 euro already to avoid wasting precious hours in the line outside the Vatican Museum. Our guide brought us through some of the less visited galleries, such as the Vatican Carriage Museum, where you can see the original Pope mobile, but the Raphael Rooms were as crowded as our first visit.

Our guide also took us to tour the Vatican Gardens, this area of the Vatican is not open to the general public, so we enjoyed seeing a part of the Vatican many people only see through the windows of the Vatican Museum. Like most Italian gardens, flowers are not a part of the landscaping in the Vatican Gardens with the notable exception of a reproduction of the Lourdes Grotto. We also noticed there were no fruit trees to be seen in the acres of the Vatican Garden, our tour guide explained, as if it were obvious, that this was in deference to the symbolism of fruit tree in the story of Adam and Eve in Eden.