Skip the Line Acces: Early Entry Sistine Chapel & Vatican Museum Tickets

This Early Access Sistine Chapel experience is perfect for visitors who want to see the Chapel before the crowds arrive, gaining access before other tour groups and the general public. After your quiet visit you can choose to enter the Vatican Museums, wandering the Papal Palace on your own, seeing all there is to see in your own time and at your own pace. Or if time is short, you can fly on to your next destination, content in the knowledge that you have seen Rome’s finest masterpiece.

Our Early Access Sistine Chapel group meets early in the morning, skipping the long lines already outside the Vatican Museums and entering even before the doors have officially opened. Visitors will be accompanied to the Sistine Chapel where they’ll enter before anyone else, finding this incredible room empty. Later in the day there will barely be room to move, but in the minutes before opening time, all is quiet.

After the Sistine Chapel, visitors will be able to wander the Vatican Museums for the rest of the day free of charge – and with such an early meeting time, the day ahead is long. Your escort will leave you with a map and an introduction to the most important sites of the museums so you can get the most from your time with the Vatican’s nine-mile art collection.

Dark Rome is currently the only tour operator to offer this special access, getting visitors into the Vatican Museums at 7:45 AM. That’s 15 minutes ahead of other tour operators and a huge 1 hour and 15 minutes ahead of the general public. With only 20 people or less per group and a maximum of two Dark Rome groups running per day, your Sistine experience will be as intimate as it should be.

Meeting point: At 7.15am at the bottom of the wide steps across the street from the entrance of the Vatican Museums. The steps are located between Caffè Vaticano and Hotel Alimandi Vaticano, on the corner of Viale Vaticano and Via Tunisi. Our Dark Rome coordinators will be wearing blue Dark Rome/Guideman polo shirts or jackets for easy recognition.

Other information: We regret that we are unable to accommodate guests with wheelchairs or any impairments requiring special assistance. We are also unable to accommodate strollers or baby carriages on our group tours.

Entrance into the Vatican requires a strict dress code. Knees and shoulders MUST be covered for both men and women. Dark Rome cannot be held responsible for refused entry due to improper dress. On Wednesdays, access to St. Peter’s Basilica & Square may be closed at the time of the morning tour due to the Papal Audience.

We regret that we are unable to accommodate guests with wheelchairs or mobility impairments on our tours. We are also unable to accommodate pushchairs or strollers on our tours.

Assistance or guided tour

Admissions

Meal

Drinks

Equipment

Optional meal

In English at 7.15 am

Appropriate age for child ticket from 6 to 18 years