Explore the Vatican Museums before they open to the public As an accredited tour company with the Museums, our special early access Vatican tours provide skip-the-line tickets for all our clients, providing you with the most convenient morning visit to admire Michelangelo's awe-inspiring frescoes.Our early morning Vatican tour offers the perfect environment in which to admire the Sistine Chapel and the artworks of the Museums, giving you the space to appreciate their beauty and comprehend their meaning. Exploring the Vatican with an expert guide in a small group will help you to visualize the cultural context that gave birth to these incredible artistic masterpieces – you’ll learn about the ambitious artists, princes, merchants and bankers who created a new world of spectacular cities studded with elegant palaces and magnificent churches. Visiting the Vatican you’ll understand why the Renaissance was one of the most important periods in human history, an amazing time when the flowering of the arts was accompanied by the evolution of science - together laying the foundations for our modern world. Meet the genius of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel Whoever sees the Sistine Chapel through the eyes of Michelangelo, whoever reads in it his thoughts and sentiments, encounters a genius. Who he was, how he lived and what he thought are the main themes of our visit. Our guides will bring to life the great building projects of the Italian Renaissance and together we will relive the environment of the Papal court in Rome in which Michelangelo created his masterpieces. The figures of Jonah, Adam, Eve, Noah and thousands of others on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and in the Last Judgment reflect the profound ideas of Michelangelo – you’ll be able to appreciate what they say, and learn how these frescoes redefined not only art, but the way in which we look at the world. Explore the courts of the Italian Renaissance in the Raphael Rooms This was a period of overwhelming enthusiasm and of amazing innovation. The men of the Renaissance didn't merely dream of changing the world - they really revolutionized it. The printing press, the geographic maps with which Columbus reached the Americas, modern science, architecture, art and the sense of beauty (a concept often demonized in the Middle Ages), all these were their creations. The frescoes of the Raphael rooms perfectly depict the world of the contemporary courts that governed the course of this new world and where the great geniuses of the age called home. Get up close to amazing masterpieces on our Vatican Museums tour Some of the most important works that we will discover, such as timeless Greek masterpieces like the Laocoon, the Belvedere Torso and the Apollo Belvedere, were excavated at the time of Michelangelo and Raphael after being lost for centuries. They studied and admired them in the same beautiful spaces where they are preserved today. This is what makes the Vatican Museums so special and unique in the world: their walls incorporate the history of the Renaissance. Discovering a meaningful selection of masterpieces with our knowledgeable guide, you will appreciate the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel in their original context. From the Sistine Chapel we will reach St. Peter's Basilica (except on Wednesdays) without waiting in line Unravel the fascinating story of Christianity in St. Peter's Basilica Visiting St. Peter's Basilica will take you to the heart of the Christian faith. We'll discover an incredible collection of relics and religious objects gathered over the course of nearly 2,000 years at the site of St. Peter's tomb, located below the main altar. In the basilica you will have the chance to admire and understand enchanting works of art such as Michelangelo's Pietà, a work whose intimate embrace overflows with such tenderness that it can move even the hardest viewer to tears. We will bring you here to learn about a history that will also become our own, a history lived by the protagonists of our fascinating Vatican group tours.