Tour company has opportunity where they give you an after hours tour of the Vatican museums/Sistine chapel with a guide and like 5 other people. That’s all who’s in the whole building - you, a guard, a guide, and a couple more people. It’s like 3 hours long, you go through all of Raphael’s stuff, get the see alllllll the amazing sculptures, paintings, and maps and everything. When you get to the Sistine chapel, you get to spend 30 minutes in that one place. You can take pictures (usually not allowed), lay down and look at it, do anything you want. You get to see it in all of its majesty and really experience it rather than being herded like cattle through one of the most popular places in the world.
Anyone have any experience with these? They sound very romantic and amazing but the price is still getting me a little. It’s only me attending so it’s not as bad, but I’m not a rich man, either. This is a really important part of the tour for me that I don’t want ruined by terrible crowds and if I could take an opportunity where there’s little to no crowd at all, I’d love to make the most of it.
The Vatican museums and especially the Sistine Chapel are host to a literal crush of humanity every day, every minute they are open, from what I recall (granted I’ve never been there from open to close). The crowds really do get in the way of everything you try to look at - they have to because there are just so many people.
If I had the opportunity (and could afford the fee) to visit without all those other people I would.
I would double check, though, that yours will be the only group there, or that there are only a small number of other groups there. Kind of defeats the “small group experience” when you’re one group of 5 visiting simultaneously with 300 other “exclusive” groups of 5.
My family took a “before hours” tour there. We started at least 1 hour before it was open to the general public. It was really worth it - we walked across the Sistine Chapel more or less alone the first time; at the very end we had to pass through again and it was a solid wall of people. If you are interested in the history, the art, taking in the spectacle of it, it is a much better experience.
I just booked a Friday night limited tour - there are supposed to be significantly fewer people allowed in compared to the normal crush. Will report back in two weeks.