Vatican Collections

• PHOTOS

Our Vatican Collections itinerary was spun out of our enormously popular Arte Vaticana itinerary. It is a shorter version of that walk that focuses solely on the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, excluding the Basilica of Saint Peter's. Led by an art historian or church historian, the exact course of the itinerary depends on the background of the docent, the interests of the group, and the vicissitudes of the Museums (i.e. which galleries are open on a given day). We usually begin with the chronologically-arranged picture gallery known as the Pinacoteca, where we are treated to a seminar in the history of painting from the late medieval to high Renaissance periods.

From here, depending on the interests of your docent and the group at large, we traverse the halls of the Vatican palaces, visiting the most important rooms of the museums, including the ancient statuary collection of Julius II and the papal apartments decorated by Raphael. By the time we reach the Sistine Chapel, we will

Our Vatican Collections itinerary was spun out of our enormously popular Arte Vaticana itinerary. It is a shorter version of that walk that focuses solely on the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, excluding the Basilica of Saint Peter's. Led by an art historian or church historian, the exact course of the itinerary depends on the background of the docent, the interests of the group, and the vicissitudes of the Museums (i.e. which galleries are open on a given day). We usually begin with the chronologically-arranged picture gallery known as the Pinacoteca, where we are treated to a seminar in the history of painting from the late medieval to high Renaissance periods.

From here, depending on the interests of your docent and the group at large, we traverse the halls of the Vatican palaces, visiting the most important rooms of the museums, including the ancient statuary collection of Julius II and the papal apartments decorated by Raphael. By the time we reach the Sistine Chapel, we will have set the context to appreciate the cultural and artistic climate in which Michelangelo worked painting the ceiling and later the Last Judgment.

To assist you in planning your trip to the Vatican, we have created an informative resources page - How to Tour the Vatican

Note: Keep in mind that we do organize other walks at the Vatican. The Arte Vaticana with reservations (4 hours) includes a visit to St. Peter's Basilica. If the Vatican Collections doesn't seem to suit your needs, please take a look at this. For a highly in-depth look at the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica, you may want to pair this with our St. Peter's Symposium, a three hour itinerary in the Basilica and Treasury museum.

Note: While our visit includes advance reservations to the museums, the Vatican Museums are extremely crowded. We organize this walk to take place at the most opportune times. However, we may spend a few minutes at the beginning of the walk waiting in the reserved entry line line, during which time our docent will provide an overview and contextualization for the walk. No time will be wasted. Please keep in mind that the museums are generally more crowded on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. If you can organize your visit for a Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday that's best. We also recommend either an 8 am start before general admission to the public begins or an afternoon start time when the morning crowds have died down.