The Pristine Sistine Tour with Walks of Italy: Is it Worth It?

This tour includes:

• Skip-the-line tickets to the Vatican Museums – including the Sistine Chapel (which is part of the Vatican Museums complex)
  
  
• A time-saving cut through from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica that means you don’t have to wait in the security line again (only available to guided tours)

How “Pristine” Are We Talking Here?

One thing I want to touch on at the beginning here is the fact that the name of this tour is a little bit of a misnomer. And after some investigating (read: asking my guide about it in a quiet moment on the tour), I realized why. 

Prior to 2020, I believe the Sistine Chapel opened at the same time as the Vatican Museums, so this particular tour would rush straight to the Chapel to get there before the crowds, which would result in a slightly more peaceful visit.

Then, they would exit and go back through the museums having already tackled the Sistine Chapel. 

Crucially, during that time frame, group tours were also able to enter the Vatican Museums a full hour before individuals (8am vs. 9am). Now, everyone – groups and individuals – are able to enter at 8am. 

During the period between 2020 and 2022, the Vatican also instituted new hours that meant that the Sistine Chapel doesn’t open its doors until 9-9:30am or so, which means the order is flipped and you do the museum first, then the chapel around when they open its doors. 

Which, as you might imagine, means the hordes of other tourists will have joined you inside despite the fact that you were one of the first groups in line. 

The truth is that, because of these changes, there is really no time where you, a member of the general public (and not, say, the Pope) can be alone – or even close to it – inside the Sistine Chapel.

EVEN ON AN EARLY ACCESS GROUP TOUR.

However, I did want to talk about this up front because the name “Pristine Sistine” seems like a bit of a carryover from a time when that was plausibly true.

I would argue that it’s not anymore, but it honestly doesn’t really matter. 

What matters is the answer to whether or not this tour is worth the upcharge from just a ticket alone, which costs €20-25, depending on whether you book in advance or not to skip the hours-long ticket line at the ticket office (spoiler alert: you absolutely should book in advance). 

So, Is This Tour Worth It?

All that being said about whether or not the name “Pristine Sistine” is still appropriate, let’s talk about whether or not this tour is worth it (or how to think about it for your trip). 

The cost of a simple entry ticket for the Vatican Museums is €25 (€20 plus a €5 online booking fee, which allows you to skip the line) at the time of writing.

There are various other additions, like the audio guide (€7 and access to other parts of the complex, that you can select, and we would say that the audio guide is a must. 

That puts the total cost of visiting on your own at €32 per person (less for kids and seniors). 

The tour costs somewhere around €135 (they have dynamic pricing that gets more expensive the closer you get to your dates), which means it’s roughly €100 more for the tour. 

I do still think the early morning version of this tour is worth it for three reasons (which we’ll cover in detail below): the expertise and deeper dive that a guide gives you, the time saved, and the availability factor. 

However, I would say the answer is closer to “it depends,” and we’ll talk about what exactly it depends on throughout this section.

One of the most important lessons we’ve learned over the past few years of traveling is to always opt for a guided tour when it comes to big art museums with sprawling collections, a description that certainly includes the Vatican Museums.  

The guide will give you all of the context and history you need to actually understand what you’re looking at, and will help you figure out what to see and what to skip in order to help tell that story. 

We’re not huge art buffs, and we have often had the experience of walking into a museum, wandering around for a bit, reading some signs, and walking out having learned almost nothing and wondering if we were the problem. 

After a perspective-changing tour of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence a few years ago (which came on the heels of a similar tour experience at the Colosseum with Walks of Italy on this tour), we realized that we can be art people, we just need the added context and story behind the art to help us understand what exactly we’re looking at. 

Now, we generally opt to visit one museum per city, and we go deep with a guided tour to get the most out of our visit. 

Walks of Italy’s expert guides are among the best in the business, at least in my experience. The worst Walks guide I’ve had was bang-on average in the grand scheme of guided tours I’ve taken in my lifetime, which is a pretty good batting average across 5-6 different tours. 

Several – namely Dario from our memorable Colosseum Tour – are among the best guides we’ve ever had the privilege of doing a tour with.

The second reason we think it’s worth it is the time you’ll save by entering first thing in the morning, and then skipping the security line for St. Peter’s Basilica via the guided cut-through from the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica that is only available to guided tours. 

Judging by the 1-2 hour line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica that I encountered upon exiting around 1pm, I would say that the ability to take that cut through that saves you from re-waiting in that security line is almost worth the upcharge on its own (given your limited time in Rome and the fact that it’s hot and exposed). 

Combined with the skip-the-line entry, the first of the day, we think you’ll find that there’s not really a more efficient way to combine these two major sights in Rome. 

The other scenario where the tour is absolutely worth it is if the tickets for the Vatican Museums are sold out for your dates, or if the early morning entry tickets are sold out for your dates. 

One of the scenarios we hear most often is something along the lines of “help! We’re visiting next week and tickets are sold out, what should we do?!.

In that scenario, your options are fairly limited, and a guided tour is basically the only option you have if you want to see the Vatican Museums (you could wait in line on the day of, but it will take several hours and we’d honestly skip it and focus your time elsewhere).

A better, less common question is what to do if the only tickets available are for an entry time of something like 12pm. 

The Vatican Museums are absolutely PACKED from 10am to 4pm (roughly), and it will be a much less pleasant experience. 

Putting my cards on the table here, given the choice between paying a premium for this tour and visiting on my own starting at 12pm, I’d do the tour ten times out of ten (especially considering the reasons we already covered above). 

However, if that doesn’t sound like something you’re interested in, we have some thoughts on visiting independently that you can find at the bottom of this guide. 

The Structure of the Tour

At a high level, this tour starts with an early wake up call, and you’ll meet your guide bright and early at a cafe near the Vatican where you can grab a coffee, use the restroom, and check in with your guide to get prepared for the morning ahead. 

From there, you’ll walk over to the entrance and be one of the first groups in line for entry (we were third in line).

This does mean that you’ll be in line 20-30 minutes BEFORE the doors open, which means a little bit of standing and waiting. However, the guide will use this time to orient you to the Vatican and go over what you’re going to see and some history and culture to keep in mind. 

Crucially, this is where you’ll learn about the Sistine Chapel (mostly), because the guides are not allowed to talk once you’re inside later in the tour. 

You’ll then go through the security line (which is the line you’re waiting in), enter the building, and regroup with your guide before heading out into the courtyard. This is also where the only bathroom break on the tour happens. 

Then it’s a long stroll through the Vatican Museums, with plenty of stops to talk about specific pieces of art.

Unfortunately, it also means walking past hundreds of treasures that you won’t get to come back to (because the tour ends in St. Peter’s Basilica). You’ll cover the highlights, though. 

Crucially, you’re going to see a bunch of tours making a beeline from the entrance to the Sistine Chapel, but you should know that the Sistine Chapel doesn’t open to the public until 9am or so (at the earliest – this is what my guide told me, and I can’t find any sources to confirm that information), which is why this particular tour does not do that. 

Instead of going straight to the Sistine Chapel, waiting in line again, and then circling back to the rest of the Vatican Museums, you’ll spend the time on the Vatican Museums ahead of entering the Sistine Chapel so that you can then take the cut through over to St. Peter’s Basilica, which saves you tons of time. 

However, this is also where the biggest letdown of the tour happens. 

Because of the structure of the tour and timing considerations, Walks of Italy has designed the tour to do the Vatican Museums first en route to the Sistine Chapel, take that side entrance to St. Peter’s, and continue there. 

Which means you won’t actually have the Sistine Chapel to yourself in any meaningful way, since it will be roughly 10:30-11am by the time you get there.

As I said above, that makes the name “Pristine Sistine” a little questionable, and I’d really wish they’d change it and set expectations correctly. 

You’ll do a short walk around St. Peter’s Basilica – including a stop at Michaelangelo’s Pieta – and the tour will end inside the Basilica. 

From there, you have the ability to continue exploring the Basilica, including climbing the dome (an extra ticket that you can buy onsite), or leaving and moving on. 

If, after reading all of those thoughts, you think this is the right tour for you, you can click here to check prices and availability for your dates. 

Things to Know About the Tour

Before you go, here are a few things to keep in mind about this tour that would be helpful before you show up the morning of. 

The only bathroom opportunities are at the meeting point (~7:00am) and immediately after entering the museums (~8:30am). Then it’s a full three hours before another bathroom is available. 

It’s a lot of walking, including stairs. I clocked ~10,000 steps along the way, including several sets of stairs. If you have mobility restrictions, that might be a lot of moving around. 

There is also nowhere to sit. You’re standing for the entire tour, and there are only a few places along the way where I saw a place to sit. 

No food and drinks allowed inside the museums. You’ll want to eat a good breakfast before you show up because the tour lasts until lunch time. 

You must cover knees and shoulders inside St. Peter’s Basilica (it’s a Catholic church after all). Leave the short shorts and tank tops at home for this day, otherwise they will not allow you to enter. 

DO NOT VISIT ON WEDNESDAY. For a variety of reasons, it becomes much much more difficult to access St. Peter’s Basilica, but mostly because the passageway between the Sistine Chapel and Basilica is closed. Which means you have to exit the museums, walk all the way around, and wait in another long security line. 

There is no photo or video allowed inside the Sistine Chapel. Yes, there are guards. No, you shouldn’t try to sneak a photo. Be respectful!

Tips for Visiting the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Independently

If you’ve gotten this far and have decided that the tour doesn’t sound like the right choice for you, I have some thoughts about how to maximize your time when seeing the two main attractions at the Vatican. 

First of all, you should book your tickets as soon as possible so that you have access to the 8am and 8:30am entry slots. 

They go on sale 60 days in advance, and sell out within an hour if it’s peak season. You want those early entry times!

If they are sold out, the first thing I would do before booking a tour is look at online resellers, who generally have more availability than going direct (though not unlimited availability). Here is the Get Your Guide page where you can check if they have availability for your dates. 

If the first entry of the day is sold out, I would also consider the 4pm entry slot, which is another relatively quiet time to be in the museums (especially midweek). 

Second of all, I would consider doing the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica on different days (or, alternatively, doing St. Peter’s first thing in the morning between 7am and 8am, and the Vatican Museums in the later afternoon). 

The reason is that, by the time you’re done with the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, it will be around noon (maybe even later, depending on your pace).

Which means you’re going to be waiting in the security line for St. Peter’s at peak time. 

I would recommend, if you have the time, getting to St. Peter’s Basilica at opening (currently 7:30am) on a different day for a much more relaxing experience, and for the fact that the light will be better if you choose to climb the Dome (plus fewer people in the narrow passageways). 

This really only works if you have more than a few days dedicated to Rome on your Italy itinerary, and is one of the main reasons why one of our top tips for visiting Rome for the first time is to have three full days at a minimum. 

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