01 Jul 2024
I really wish I could rate this tour higher, but the lady we had spent more time talking about what we should look for rather than actually viewing it. We started our tour around 7:30am and spent an hour discussing what we should look for inside the cathedral once we got inside (which was actually going to be at the very end of the tour) and didn't get in line for the museums until 8:30am. Then, once getting through security, we spent a half hour from 9:00am to 9:30am discussing the wonders of the Sistine Chapel, still outside the museums. Once we got inside the museums, we had to rush breathlessly through the museums to finally make it to the Sistine Chapel at 10:35am...5 minutes after our tour was supposed to be over. Since 8 out of our small group purposefully selected the early tour before having to leave for the airport, including ourselves, we had less than 10 minutes inside the Sistine Chapel and absolutely no time to go inside St. Peter's, which was one of the reasons for buying this tour. We were supposed to be able to go inside a side entrance of the basilica and see what we had discussed 3 hours earlier, but that wasn't going to happen. Unless you have 4 hours to spare, do not take this 3-hour tour.
I would have rated this tour only 2 stars, but the tour guide was extremely informative and had a lot of interesting information so added an extra star for her storytelling. I would have loved to have her in a classroom setting for 3 hours BEFORE the tour, but unfortunately, her pacing was extremely poor and we lost out on the opportunity to spend much time in the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and never got into St. Peter's. Very disappointed, actually, as we probably won't be back in Rome as a family again and would have loved to see St. Peter's at least once in our lifetime.
One other word of caution to anyone who thinks they are going to avoid the mass of crowds by going on one of these early tours. The crowds may be at 90% rather than 110% during the middle of the day, but still expect to have to wind your way through a horde of humanity.