Vatican Museums with Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica – Extended tour
Taking this tour you will be able to explore other areas of the Vatican Museums not included in the standard tour and to move at a more relaxed pace.
The Vatican Museums extended tour is an unforgettable experience that will give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of one of the most important and iconic places in the world. This tour is a longer, extended version of the classical Vatican Museums with Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter’s tour.
On this extended Vatican tour, you’ll see all the highlights of the Ancient Roman collections, including the famous Laocoön, whose finding in 1506 was one of the most exceptional events in 16th-century Rome.
In addition to the sights visited on the ordinary tour, you may choose to visit either the Braccio Nuovo (or New Wing) or the Vatican Painting Gallery (Pinacoteca).
When the works confiscated by Napoleon were returned from France a re-ordering of the collections was necessary and the opportunity was taken to build a new section for classical sculpture, hence the name New Wing. The building is defined by a 68-metre-long gallery which is covered by a coffered ceiling with skylights. The Braccio Nuovo houses celebrated masterpieces from Ancient Rome such as the statue of Augustus from Prima Porta and the statue of the river Nile. The latter was found in central Rome in 1513 in the area of an ancient temple dedicated to the Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis.
Otherwise, you may opt to visit the Vatican Painting Gallery: a wonderful collection of paintings dating from the 12th to the 19th century. This is an extremely important collection, boasting some true masterpieces, such as Leonardo’s St. Jerome, Caravaggio’s Deposition and the last painting Raphael worked on before dying, the Transfiguration.
From here, we will continue the visit to see the Rooms of Raphael, considered one of the Vatican masterpieces with the Sistine Chapel. These 4 rooms are part of the papal apartments and some of them were painted by Raphael when his rival Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Among the paintings, you will see the famous School of Athens, which made Raphael so popular with the Pope to earn him the entire commission.
After your visit to the Sistine Chapel, we proceed to the imposing Saint Peter’s Basilica, the church built over Saint Peter’s tomb, one of the most stunning religious buildings in the world, ending the tour in Saint Peter’s Square.
